Ards faces a fine of close to £1 Million without the introduction of a fortnightly grey bin collection service.
One of the few local authorities in Northern Ireland still operating a weekly collection of grey bins, Ards Borough Council has decided to move to an alternate weekly collection scheme in June with the aim of increasing the area’s recycling rate, which currently stands at around 26%. While the rate is satisfactory for the moment, it is unlikely to rise further without more recycling on the ground. Without an increase, Ards will fail to meet European Union targets for diverting waste from landfill and large fines will result.
Councillor Jonathan Bell, Chairman of the Council Services Committee, explained:
“While we are meeting our targets at the moment, we anticipate that by 2009/10 we will be short by 6,000 tonnes. With penalties of £150 per tonne, that equates to a massive bill of £900,000 in one year alone and ultimately, it is ratepayers who will foot the bill. And the fines will continue to grow. If we don’t take action to boost our recycling rates, we would effectively be burying close to £1 Million in a landfill site along with our rubbish,” he said. “Around 70% of households in Ards currently have blue and brown bins which is great. However, the only way to reduce the amount of recyclable material which is needlessly being dumped in landfill sites via the grey bins is to switch to a fortnightly collection, compelling local residents who are not yet recycling their rubbish to sign up for blue and brown bins and to contribute to the drive to meet our targets. The change will also encourage those residents who already have recycling bins to ensure they use them to the maximum, as evidence suggests many people still place recyclable material in their grey bins”.
The Council recognises that the new alternate weekly collection is the most significant service change in recent years and that there will inevitably be some teething problems.
“We aim to make the switch as seamless as possible and will be mounting an information campaign to keep all our residents up to date with the changes. Stickers will be put on all grey bins, for example, new timetables and calendars will be distributed to homes, details will be on our web site, banners will be displayed and we’ll also have the message on the sides of our collection lorries,” said Councillor Bell. “Naturally, we can’t expect everything to go perfectly and local people will obviously have questions, so we will also be setting up a dedicated helpline number, using specialist call centre staff, to answer queries”.
The new arrangements will mean:
Grey and blue bins will be collected on alternate weeks. In other words if your normal ‘bin day’ is a Monday, one week your grey bin will be emptied and the next week your blue bin will be emptied and so on.
Collection days for brown bins will change for most people but brown bins will continue to be emptied once a fortnight.
The new collection arrangements will begin on Monday 2nd June. Anyone who would like further information at this stage or who would like to request a blue and/or brown bin should contact the Environmental Services Department at Ards Borough Council, Tel: 028 9182 4014/15.
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Submitted by The Editor on Mon, 2008-02-04 22:34.
