Kerbie project not a load of rubbish - Council promise

BALLYMENA’S recycling operation is not a waste of time - and that’s official.

And the borough’s householders and businesses have been urged to keep up the good work despite negative reporting in some quarters about the actual value of recycling.

Ballymena Borough Council’s Chief Executive, Anne Donaghy moved swiftyly to counter claims that waste which should be recycled is ending up as landfill because it is not being separated enough.

She said: “All of the material collected for recycling either at the kerbside through our various recycling collection schemes or through our Bring Banks or Civic Amenity Site at Waveney Road is 100% recycled.

“By using the various recycling schemes our residents are ensuring that all materials provided to our recycling partners are of the optimum quality. We have confidence in the services our partner organisations are providing.

“We want to ensure that residents continue to support these recycling schemes. Great progress has been made in improving recycling levels and our recycling rate has doubled between 2003/4 and 2008/9, achieving a 36% recycling rate in 2009/10. It is we believe in no small way, thanks to the hard work and engagement of residents coupled with the provision of quality recycling services that we have reached this high level of recycling.”

arc21 a waste management group which represents 11 local councils, including Ballymena,said the amount of dry recyclable material from households recycled last year in its areas was over 90,000 tonnes.

It claimed these figures were independently validated by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

"Householders in the arc21 area can be absolutely assured that the material properly placed in their recycling bins is recycled and I would encourage them to support their councils recycling schemes as much as they possibly can, by maintaining and indeed stepping up their current levels of recycling," the group's Ricky Burnett said.

Concerns over recycling were raised when manufacturers contacted the BBC to raise their worries over the high level of recycled waste they were having to turn away.