Press Releases
Council Welcomes Residents’ Commitment to Recycling but Seeks Co-operation to Minimise Contamination
13 August 2012
Larne Council has obtained a recycling rate of 50.8% for the year 2011/2012 which makes local residents the third best recyclers in the province, just behind Banbridge at 51.3% and Magherafelt at 60.2%. In the past year Larne Council increased the recycling rate by 7% which was the second highest increase in the region. However contamination levels still remain an issue and the Council seek the patience and co-operation of residents to improve the quality of material recycled and reduce contamination.
Commenting on the new drive to reduce contamination of recyclable waste Director of Environmental service Philip Thompson said:
“The citizens of Larne are demonstrating great efforts in segregating waste and achieving these much improved figures which all help towards reducing the cost to rate payers of waste going to landfill. We must all redouble our efforts to ensure we maximise our efforts by checking carefully that items that can’t be recycled are not mistakenly going into the wrong bins. It’s important that everyone is reminded about the sorting of items and that a bin doesn’t become contaminated by unsuitable items. This way we should be able to improve further in the year ahead.”
The success in recycling is the culmination of a number of key decisions taken by Council in terms of providing a new Household Recycling Centre at Larne South, introducing glass collection and by diverting waste from Household Recycling Centres for processing in Belfast rather than going straight to landfill. However the co-operation of residents is critical to realise the benefit of these investments.
Local residents will have noticed a greater focus on the quality of material being collected in blue bins as a result of very high contamination in June. No plastic bags should be included in blue bins, nor should textiles, tetra paks or plastic tubs such as butter or yogurt tubs be included. Glass bottles/containers should only be within the caddy insert. This can be confusing for residents as many view these items as recyclable due to the recycling logo being included on them. At present the processor, Bryson House based at Mallusk, cannot deal with tetra paks or plastic containers in blue bin waste but it is anticipated that this will change in April 2013 when the contract will be renewed.
In an effort to reduce contamination Council staff has been reminded not to collect blue bins containing contaminated material. Council apologise for any inconvenience this has caused but seek the continued co-operation of residents to engage, communicate and co-operate with Council to improve the quality of material being collected.
