Food waste bins on hold

Despite a successful pilot run, councillors agreed to delay their decision on the implementation of such a scheme until further details were brought before council.

The seven-litre brown bin caddies which are intended for use in the kitchen allow householders to recycle food waste.

By recycling food waste council hoped to encourage all-year-round use of the larger brown bin which had been used predominantly for garden waste and abandoned during the winter months.

1,000 of the kitchen caddies were put to use as part of a pilot scheme in June which took in three areas with brown bins - Belvedere Manor, Bleary and Ballyhannon.

Council’s Environmental Services Committee were presented with a report which said the pilot scheme showed merit and had been successful and overall there had been an increase of 22% in waste tonnage.

Councillors were told as a conservative estimate, based around the average increase of study results, the scheme could bring an increase of 12% in tonnage leading to landfill savings of £28,400 per year.

Caddies could be purchased for approximately 98p each and based on these costs caddies could be rolled out to the remaining 18,000 brown bin households with a payback period of less than eight months.

Councillors agreed to note the contents of the report and await further details on a proposal to procure additional brown bin caddies.