Council encouraged to 'Keep Recycling Local'

RECYCLING campaign group Keep Recycling Local has asked the council’s Environment and Regeneration Committee to introduce three-stream recycling to reduce contamination and ensure it maximises the contribution it makes to the circular economy.

Sorting recycling into three streams before collection ensures many of the materials such as glass and plastic can be reprocessed locally and remain in the Northern Ireland economy.

During the presentation members heard about the environmental and economic benefits of sorting our recyclables before collection rather than putting them all into one bin.

Otherwise known as co-mingling, this degrades the materials, makes them hard to separate and results in more materials being sent to landfill or export.

Each year Northern Ireland exports 90,000 tonnes of recyclable materials as far away as India and Thailand.

An upcoming consultation from the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) is expected to provide an opportunity for councils to move away from co-mingled collections to maximise the value and recyclability of materials such as aluminium, glass, paper, cardboard and plastic.

Encouraging the council to end co-mingled collections, KRL spokesperson Nicola Carruthers said: "It’s important to KRL that councils see the value in keeping materials separate.

"Co-mingled recyclable materials are being shipped across the world at great cost, while local recycling companies are spending vast sums of money to import these very same materials because they are unable to source suitable quality material locally.

“We need to end co-mingling to reduce contamination so we can keep recycling local.

"Multi-stream recycling will mean significantly greater reprocessing of glass and other recyclables. That will allow councils to play a much bigger part in the circular economy and local enterprises can continue to compete for business as customers continue to require more sustainable packaging to improve their own sustainability.

“This approach is good for consumers, for households, for our economy and for the environment, it is a total no-brainer.”

Invest NI calculated in 2017 that local companies Huhtamaki, Cherry Pipes and Encirc were generating in excess of £100m for the Northern Ireland economy by reprocessing local recyclate into new products.

Those values have risen since then and that figure could be significantly increased if Northern Ireland recycled properly.

Established by local organisations Enva, Encirc and Bryson Recycling, KRL is supported by a range of organisations such as British Glass, Friends of the Earth, Tetra-Pak, Zero Waste North West, Ulster Wildlife, Action for Cartons in the Environment, Alupro Northern Ireland Polymers Association, and the Confederation of Paper Industries.

To find out more about the KRL or to see how you could get involved, visit: www.keeprecyclinglocal.com