Recycling rate increases by 75% in 12 months

Belfast City Council has hailed figures that show a 75% increase in recycling as an "early Christmas present for the environment".

The Council reported that recycling rates have increased dramatically over the past year. The amount of waste diverted away from landfill for recycling has increased by almost 75% over the past 12 months.

The most recent figures, for the period July to September, show that the city is now recycling and composting almost 10% of its household waste. The statistics are revealed in the Council’s most recent return to the Environment and Heritage Services, which monitors the recycling rates of all Northern Ireland’s 26 local councils.

The figures are set to show further significant improvement over the coming year, as the Council gives more and more households direct access to recycling facilities during 2005.

“We have made great strides in improving our recycling rates – but we still have a long way to go,” said Martin Doherty, the Council’s Waste Manager. “We are recycling or composting around 10 per cent of our household waste – but 90 per cent is still going to landfill.

“Over the past 18 months, blue paper recycling bins have been delivered to more than 35,000 households across the city, with around 50 per cent of people using the bins on a regular basis. Earlier this year, we opened three new household recycling centres, which increased the amount of materials we can recycle, and these already are enjoying considerable success."

The rollout of the blue bin scheme will continue throughout 2005 and the City Council will make kerbside recycling boxes available to an additional 25,000 households in the first part of the year.

A fourth household recycling centre, in the south of the city, is scheduled to open next year, while new brown wheelie bins for recycling garden waste will be delivered to 55,000 homes from April.

Full details of Belfast City Council’s recycling initiatives, and other advice on recycling, can be found in the latest edition of ‘City Matters’.

Further information may also be obtained from the recycling helpline, on 0800 0328 100.

(SP)