Mid and East Antrim: U-turn on wheelie box system with proposal to standardise household recycling collections
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council looks set to ditch a wheelie box recycling system in two of its towns in a U-turn on waste collection.
Households in Carrickfergus and Ballymena areas will see a return to “co-mingled” blue bins for recycling in line with Larne after discussions took place behind closed doors, at a meeting of the borough council at The Braid, in Ballymena, last week.
In a statement issued on Friday (April 11), the council said it has been researching ways to make recycling simpler for householders and to improve recycling rates across the borough.
It confirmed a new collection model was approved at a Waste Harmonisation sub-committee on 24 February and ratified at a full council meeting on April 3.
Council officers are now progressing with the approved collection model, which will see all dry recycling materials being placed into one bin.
Households in Ballymena and Carrickfergus will receive a new 240L blue bin. Larne area residents will continue to use the blue bin they have. Collection of this blue recycling bin will be on a fortnightly basis.
The Mayor, Alderman William McCaughey, welcomed the proposal. He said: “Council have long sought to standardise waste collection provisions across the three legacy boroughs and improve the service for all residents in Mid and East Antrim.
“The proposal leads the way to increasing Mid and East Antrim’s recycling capacity for households, in a simplified way. It will also see council investing in fleet and staffing to provide a more adaptable and efficient recycling service.”
Public Consultation
The next step for the local authority is to carry out a public consultation on the proposed new model and undertake an economic appraisal. Once these are completed, it will establish a timetable for rolling out the new recycling collection service.
Residents are asked to continue using their current recycling collection service until further notification.
Previously, the council had been seeking funding from DAERA (Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs) to extend the triple stack wheelie box system to Larne, in a bid to operate a uniform waste collection across the borough.
However, last June, during a discussion by the council’s Environment and Economy Committee over the council’s response to a DAERA consultation on the future of waste recycling in Northern Ireland, the council’s operations director director commented: “Without question, if you want as a council to increase recycling, then a co-mingled service is the way forward.”
In today’s statement, Mid and East Antrim Council noted local authorities across Northern Ireland were set recycling targets of 55% recycling by 2025, yet in 2023/24 it achieved a recycling rate of 50.67%. In addition to this, legislation has set a 60% recycling target by 2040, 65% by 2035.
The new Climate Change (NI) Act 2022 also brings an even more ambitious target of 70% recycling by 2030, however it would also require local businesses to participate in recycling.
Concerned by these figures, Mid and East Antrim Council said it formed a Waste Harmonisation sub-committee that set about reviewing the current household kerbside dry recycling collection service across the borough.
“Using recycling collection data from across the borough, alongside data from other councils across NI, the sub-committee evaluated a range of collection model options.
"The Waste Harmonisation sub-committee also considered early feedback from residents (MEA Residents Survey 2025) who called for greater focus on simplifying recycling collections.
“They identified the need to make it easier for households to participate in the recycling process and support council’s waste initiatives.”
Have you got a story you want to share with our readers? You can now send it to us online via YourWorld at https://www.yourworld.net/submit/
It's free to use and, once checked, your story will appear on our website and, space allowing, in our newspapers.