Council extends recycle collection to apartments and rural areas
by STACEY HEANEY
With the new refuse collection vehicles and recycling containers are: (l-r) Councillor James Tinsley, Chairman of the Council's Environmental Services Committee; Mr Tommy Wilkinson, Cleansing Supervisor for Lisburn City Council and Mrs Noeleen O'Malley, Acting Assistant Director of Environmental Services (Technical).
RURAL households and those living in apartments in the city will be able to recycle more of their waste from next month after Lisburn City Council received funding for new vehicles.
The recycling rate in Lisburn is already nearly 37%, but when the council introduced its current kerbside collection scheme in 2005, which involves an alternate weekly collection of household waste for landfill one week and mixed dry recyclable and compostable waste the following week, some apartments, flats and remote rural dwellings weren't included because of operational problems.
To address the issues the Council applied to the DoE's Rethink Waste Fund for financial support and has now taken delivery of two new refuse collection vehicles.
Councillor James Tinsley, Chairman of the Council's Environmental Services Committee, said: "This extension will be introduced in two phases starting in April 2011 thanks to the receipt of funds from the DOE Rethink Waste Fund."
From April rural households not currently on the alternate weekly collection scheme will be moved to fortnightly collection of refuse and mixed dry recyclable/compostable waste via 240 litre wheeled bins.
In June the flats and apartments not on the current scheme will be moved on to a fortnightly collection of refuse and mixed dry recyclable/compostable waste via 240 litre wheeled bins for landfill waste and 23 litre kerbside caddies for mixed dry recyclable/ compostable waste.
Mr. Tinsley added: "The Council anticipates that through the extension to its kerbside collection that an additional 400 tonnes of waste will be diverted from landfill each year. It will also ensure that all properties within the Council area are provided with the opportunity to recycle from the kerbside."
The Council says it will be providing all the additional properties with the recycling containers required to take part in the scheme and information on what materials are suitable for recycling and composting.
Should you have a query about a particular waste item or require further information, please contact Lisburn City Council on 028 9250 9453 or log on to www.lisburncity.gov.uk.
stacey.heaney@ulsterstar.co.uk
Ulster Star
25/03/2011
