Blue bins ready to roll as council sets 2027 date for Ballymena and Carrickfergus
Wednesday 7 October 2026
The roll-out of blue recycling bins across Ballymena, Carrickfergus and surrounding areas is scheduled to be completed by 31 July 2027, a Mid and East Antrim Borough Council committee report has revealed.
A Performance Improvement Plan presented to a recent meeting of the council’s Corporate Resources Policy and Governance Committee at The Braid in Ballymena sets out the timetable for the change.
Blue bins ready to roll
Councillors were told the mixed dry recycling system, already in operation in Larne, will be extended across the borough through an agreed phased implementation process.
Households in the Ballymena and Carrickfergus areas will receive a new 240-litre blue bin, replacing the kerbside boxes currently used to separate items for dry recycling collections.
Larne residents will continue to use their existing blue bins for dry recyclable materials such as cardboard, paper, plastic bottles and tin cans.
There are no planned changes to brown or black bin collections.
Council changed course on recycling system
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council previously performed a U-turn on plans to introduce a wheelie box recycling system in Larne.
The local authority had sought funding from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) to extend the triple-stack system to Larne in a bid to create a uniform waste collection service across the borough.
The subsequent decision to adopt blue bins across Ballymena and Carrickfergus means the council is instead moving towards a single-bin mixed recycling system throughout Mid and East Antrim.
Neighbouring council moving in opposite direction
Meanwhile, DAERA offered £2.25m in match funding to Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council to extend the roll-out of triple-stack bins to the Antrim area, including Randalstown, Crumlin, Templepatrick and Toomebridge, moving those households away from the blue bin recycling system.
Antrim and Newtownabbey was the first local authority in Northern Ireland to introduce the triple-stack wheelie box system. The bins have been operational in the Newtownabbey area since 2016, serving 37,000 households.
Council confident in blue bin system
Explaining Mid and East Antrim’s decision to switch to a blue bin recycling system, interim chief executive Valerie Watts previously said:
“Before elected members resolved to move to a co-mingled recycling collection system, officers researched which councils had the highest recycling rates in Northern Ireland and also in England.
“Consistently, the highest performing councils collect their recycling using the single bin co-mingled system and based on the research undertaken, the council is confident that the only option for achieving the government’s recycling targets was to adopt the blue bin system.”
The change will ultimately see households across Mid and East Antrim using the same blue bin system for mixed dry recycling, with the council now working towards completing the Ballymena and Carrickfergus roll-out by the end of July 2027.
