Mid and East Antrim Borough Council 'confident' over adopting blue bin system

Speaking at a meeting of the borough council at The Braid, in Ballymena, on Monday evening, Valerie Watts was responding to a question submitted by a member of the public which queried: “Who is right – Antrim council getting rid of blue bins or Ballymena introducing blue bins?”

The interim chief executive explained: “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 also in 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.

“The council is unable to comment on whether Antrim and Newtownabbey or Mid and East Antrim, whether those councils are actually right. Antrim and Newtownabbey Council will have had to make their decision based on affordability, acceptability and the expected outcome.”

Previously, Mid and East Antrim Borough Council sought 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.

In 2023, £2.25m match-funding was offered to Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council by DAERA for the roll-out of triple stack bins in the Antrim area.

The triple stack wheelie box system is being rolled out to 23,000 households in the Antrim, Randalstown, Crumlin, Templepatrick and Toomebridge areas in a move away from the blue bin recycling system with a 240 litre black bin being replaced with a 180 litre model for non-recyclables. Brown bins will be retained for food and garden waste.

A report to Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council’s Operations Committee, which is due to meet at Antrim Civic Centre on Monday evening, said: “Delivery of wheelie boxes and black bins, along with the uplift of blue bins and the legacy 240L black bins, was completed as scheduled by the week commencing 17 November. The distribution phase was undertaken over an 11-week period.”

Antrim and Newtownabbey was the first local authority in Northern Ireland to introduce the triple stack bin system. These bins have been operational in the Newtownabbey area since 2016 covering 37,000 households.

Meanwhile, Mid and East Antrim looks set to do a U-turn on waste collection plans and ditch wheelie box bins. Households in Carrickfergus and Ballymena will receive a new 240L blue bin. Larne area residents will continue to use their existing blue bins. Collection of blue recycling bins will be on a fortnightly basis.

A statement issued by the council earlier this year said it has been researching ways to make recycling simpler for householders and to improve recycling rates across the borough. the approved collection model, which will see all dry recycling materials being placed into one bin.

Mid and East Antrim Council noted local authorities across Northern Ireland were set recycling targets of 55% recycling by 2025. In addition to this, legislation has set a 60% recycling target by 2040, 65% by 2035.

In October, the Northern Ireland Local Authority Collected Municipal Waste Management Statistics quarterly report for the period between April and June stated: “Ards & North Down reported the largest increase in their household recycling rate compared to April to June 2024 at 3.4 percentage points followed by Mid & East Antrim with an increase of 2.2 percentage points.

“Three other councils recorded an increase in their household recycling rates in April to June 2025 compared to April to June 2024. The household recycling rate decreased in five councils with the largest decrease recorded in Antrim and Newtownabbey for the period between April and June compared to the same period last year.”

Michelle Weir, Local Democracy Reporter