Wheelie box bins are to be rolled out in Antrim next year after £2.25m match-funding was offered by the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), councillors have been told.
During a presentation to Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council’s Operations Committee at Antrim Civic Centre, on Monday evening, an officer said the service is expected to commence in autumn 2024.
This will mean 23,000 households in Antrim will now receive a triple stack bin for recyclable items and a 180 litre black bin for non-recyclables. The triple stack bin will be emptied weekly and the black bin, fortnightly.
The council will now proceed with securing vehicles, containers, storage and service provision.
Triple stack wheelie bins are already in operation in Newtownabbey where they were introduced in 2016 and now extend to 37,000 households. Antrim and Newtownabbey was the first local authority in Northern Ireland to introduce these bins.
Householders also have a 180 litre black bin for non-recyclables which is emptied every fortnight. Bin collections in Antrim and Newtownabbey are outsourced out by the council to Bryson Recycling and Avenue Recycling.
In Antrim, households have a 240 litre black bin and a 240 litre blue bin which are collected on alternate weeks at present.
Garden and food waste from both areas is collected in brown bins fortnightly. Householders are encouraged to recycle glass at bottle banks.
Councillors were told the local authority had applied to DAERA for £4.5m funding in 2019 to enable the service to be extended to Antrim but this was unsuccessful.
Glengormley DUP Alderman Paula Bradley said:
“It has been a long time coming. I have never liked those dreadful blue bins. They have absolutely ruined recycling.
“What a difference the triple stack is going to make to our recycling. It is so much better all round. It is ridiculous that blue bins have been allowed to go on for so long.”