Blue bins to go as wheelie box rollout set to begin in wider Antrim area

Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council is holding a series of public information events ahead of a roll-out of wheelie box bins in the Antrim area.

The council has announced these new household bins will come into operation in Antrim, Randalstown, Crumlin, Templepatrick and Toomebridge in September.

Currently, households in the Antrim area have a 240 litre black bin and a blue bin of the same size which are collected on alternate weeks. Garden and food waste is collected in brown bins fortnightly.

Information sessions will commence on August 4, at The Junction, Antrim and will continue at venues in the Antrim area during August.

The council says:

“Wheelie boxes have been working very successfully in Newtownabbey for several years. This change is all about improving recycling, reducing waste and protecting our environment.

“By sorting and separating recyclables at home, we can reduce contamination and produce higher-quality materials for reprocessing.”

It has also stated wheelie box bins “hold more recyclables overall” and will enable glass and textiles to be collected at the kerbside with other recyclable items.

Wheelie boxes are stacked on a wheeled trolley for collection weekly.

Existing blue and black bins will be emptied and removed as part of the switch-over process to be taken for “reuse or recycling”. Households will be issued with a smaller 180 litre black bin.

Black bins will continue to be collected fortnightly. There will be no change to brown bin collections.

Antrim and Newtownabbey was the first local authority in Northern Ireland to introduce the triple stack bin system. These bins have been in operation in Newtownabbey since 2016, covering 37,000 households.