Don’t let brown bin hibernate this winter

As well as using your brown bin for garden waste, items such as bread, cereals, teabags, vegetable peelings, meat and all food scrapings as well as coal ashes must also be placed in the brown bin. Food waste can be put in compostable bags or simply just wrap them in a couple of sheets of newspaper if you wish.

“Many householders are less inclined to use their brown bin at this time of year when they have less grass cuttings and hedge clippings to dispose of. But the brown bin should be used all year round for the purpose of food recycling,” said Barry Patience, Waste and Environmental manager.

“We want to discourage local people from wasting food in the first instance and some useful tips and recipes can be found on the ‘love food, hate waste’ website www.ni.lovefoodhatewaste.com.

“But if they do have food leftovers, they should recycle it through the brown bin collection scheme with a view to reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill.

“No food waste should be placed in the black bin.”

Almost seven million tonnes of food is thrown away by households in the UK every year and most of this ends up in landfill. Using your brown bin allows food leftovers to be composted and prevents biodegradable waste going to landfill.

Once collected the contents of your brown bin are taken to a composting facility and made into organic compost.

Last year the brown bin scheme resulted in over 6,000 tonnes of organic waste in the Banbridge District being composted and diverted from landfill, an impressive achievement, however, this is only the tip of the food recycling iceberg.

With your continued recycling help everyone can sleep easy and finally put landfill to bed.