Belfast City Council has unveiled new recycling plans to almost double its residents’ recycling rate to 70 per cent (up from current rate of around 34 per cent).
The new scheme, due to be introduced between 12 August and November 2013, will affect 55,000 homes currently on a black recycling box collection scheme. Affected households will primarily be in inner city areas, as well as apartments with communal recycling facilities.
Recycling expansion
Belfast’s current recycling scheme is run by Bryson Recycling and separated into two parts. Of the city’s 135,000 residents, ‘outer city’ areas currently receive a recycling collection for dry recyclables, food waste and green waste.
All inner city residents receive a dry recyclable collection. However, a city council spokesperson told Resource that of Belfast’s 55,000 inner city residents, only around seven to eight thousand currently have a food waste collection. The new scheme will see the introduction of a food waste collection to the entirety of these 55,000 residents, as well as improvements to the current dry recyclable collections.
Those areas affected by the new service will see their black bin collections change from weekly to fortnightly, in line with the rest of the city, ‘to allow for the anticipated reduction in black bin waste with the new recycling arrangements’.
Bryson Recycling to run the scheme
The city council has announced that its staff will call on residents over the coming weeks to explain the new scheme and ‘give advice and information on recycling’. A flyer detailing the new service will also be given to residents.
Subsequently, each household will receive a black recycling box for paper, foil and batteries and a red kerbside recycling box for glass, tins, plastics, cartons, and card. They will also be given a kitchen caddy for food waste.
The council stated that it hopes that by the end of 2013, every household in the Belfast City Council area will be able to recycle food waste.
Councillor Steven Corr, Chairman of the council’s Health and Environmental Services Committee commented on the new service, saying: “We need the city’s recycling rate to be at least 50 per cent by 2020, as required by EU legislation. If we fail to achieve that target, the council will face heavy fines and it’s inevitable that those fines will have to be passed on to ratepayers in some way.
“As it stands currently, we could recycle 70 per cent of the waste we produce, but we’re only recycling half of that. We’ve reviewed our recycling service and have tried to come up with the best way for people to recycle at home, while at the same time trying to save council money which can be reinvested in other services, helping to create and sustain jobs and creating a cleaner, greener environment.”
Corr added that he appreciated it could “take a little while for the new arrangements to bed in” but encourage residents to increase their recycling behaviour.
“Every lorry road of rubbish we take to landfill costs us £900; a lorry load of recyclable waste costs £100 – 90 per cent less, representing massive savings for ratepayers. We need people to do their part and help us make the new recycling service a success”, he added.
Read more about recycling in Belfast.
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How will the government and DMOs address the challenges of including glass in DRS while ensuring a level playing field across the UK?
There's no easy solution to include glass in the DRS while maintaining a level playing field. Potential approaches include a phased introduction of glass, potentially with higher deposits to reflect its logistical challenges. The government and DMOs could incentivise innovation in glass packaging design and subsidise dedicated return points for glass-handling. Exemptions for smaller businesses unable to handle glass might also be necessary. Any successful solution will likely blend several approaches. It must address the differing priorities of devolved administrations, balance environmental benefits with logistical and cost implications, and be supported by robust consumer education campaigns emphasizing the importance of glass recycling.