Mid and East Antrim re-think 'could save ratepayers £3m', says recycling charity director
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council has been urged to have a re-think over plans to return to co-mingled recycling for households in Carrickfergus and Ballymena.
Katy Fulton, director of Bryson Recycling, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “If the council were to adopt a similar collection model to Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, namely kerbside-sort recycling combined with reduced residual waste capacity, we estimate it could receive in excess of £3m in DAERA funding and make annual savings of potentially £3m.
“In Antrim and Newtownabbey, the system is delivering. It should be a signal to Mid and East Antrim.”
The director was speaking ahead of Mid and East Antrim’s planned roll-out of blue wheelie bins in the two towns and surrounding areas next year following a dramatic U-turn which saw plans for a uniform triple stack box system for dry recycling introduced across the borough dropped.
Households in Carrickfergus and Ballymena will now receive a new 240L blue bin replacing a box collection. Larne area residents will continue to use their existing blue bins. Collection of blue recycling bins will be on a fortnightly basis.
Meanwhile, the triple stack wheelie box system, was wheeled out to 23,000 households in the Antrim, Randalstown, Crumlin, Templepatrick and Toomebridge areas, last autumn, in a move away from the blue bin recycling system with a 240 litre black bin replaced with a 180 litre model for non-recyclables, after Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council secured £2.6m match-funding from DAERA (Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs). Brown bins have been retained for food and garden waste.
The triple stack bins has been in operation in Newtownabbey since 2016 when the council was the first in Northern Ireland to introduce the weekly kerbside sort collection to 37,000 households allowing residents to sort recyclables (glass, plastics/cans, paper/card) into separate, stackable boxes.
The Bryson Recycling director reported 15 per cent contamination of materials deposited in blue bins compared to 0.1 per cent in wheelie boxes. Seventy per cent of materials collected by the charity stays in Northern Ireland.
Recently, Antrim and Newtownabbey councillors were told a reduction in contamination of household recycling means waste paper from the borough is no longer shipped to Pakistan and is processed in Lurgan.
“The direction of travel in Northern Ireland should be separation of waste.” said Katy. She stressed glass should be kept separate enabling it to be recycled in Northern Ireland instead of exported to Europe.
Soiled nappies are among the most common items wrongly dumped in blue bins. Other items seen among mixed dry recycling at Bryson Recycling’s Mallusk plant recently included a section of a child’s car seat, wood, bubble wrap, a pillow and plastic bags.
“Battery fires are a massive risk to the site,” the director noted. “Lorry loads are weighed when they arrive on site, so we know exactly how much is being tipped.”
Blue bin waste contents are put on a conveyor belt to be sorted by hand to remove contaminants. “People forget that there are human beings at the other end of a blue bin, Somebody has to separate that out,” the director stressed.
Bryson Recycling says: “Since the introduction of the new collection system, ANBC has achieved significant environmental improvements in the legacy Antrim council area.
“These include a 27% increase in recycling collected with more than 300 tonnes of additional recycling collected during the first six months to June, an estimated 18% reduction in black bin residual waste with an anticipated annual savings of £1.2m per year.
“By collecting materials separately at the kerbside, the council has improved the quality of recyclables with over 70% of these materials now being recycled within Northern Ireland, supporting local businesses, creating employment and strengthening the regional circular economy,” Bryson stated.
“The ‘Keep Recycling Local’ campaign promotes the collection of high-quality recyclable materials that can be processed here in Northern Ireland, supporting local industry and employment.”
The campaign recently received a letter from Andrew Muir, Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. In his correspondence, he noted the soon-to-be-published ‘Northern Ireland Resources and Waste Strategy’ places waste prevention and increasing both the quantity and quality of recycling at its core.
Strong Supports
“The strategy strongly supports greater separation of recyclable materials and is aligned with the wider direction of travel across the UK. ”
A question submitted by a member of the public to Mid and East Antrim Borough Council previously queried: “Who is right – Antrim council getting rid of blue bins or Ballymena introducing blue bins?”
Responding at the time, interim chief executive Valerie Watts said: “Before elected members resolved to move to a co-mingled recycling collection system, officers researched which councils had the highest recycling rates in Northern Ireland and England.
“Consistently, the highest performing councils collect their recycling using the single bin co-mingled system and based on the research undertaken, the council is confident that the only option for achieving the government’s recycling targets was to adopt the blue bin system.”
Antrim and Newtownabbey councillors were told at a meeting in December the borough’s system “aligns itself to the Welsh model” where “Welsh authorities have the second best recycling rates in the world, a director said.
The Welsh Government’s Collections Blueprint 2025 says a minimum service requires separate presentation at the kerbside under a ‘kerbside sort’ system. Materials to be collected include paper and cardboard; plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays; metal tins, cans, aerosols, and foil; cartons and other paper-based composite products; and glass jars and bottles.
There should be a weekly kerbside collection of dry recyclables. A weekly collection of separate food waste with kitchen caddies and lockable kerbside collection containers should be provided. Food waste liners should be provided to residents for free.
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council has been asked for a comment.
Michelle Weir, Local Democracy Reporting Service