DERRY City and Strabane District Council are continuing their drive to improve recycling rates by introducing a new garden waste recycling pilot scheme to almost 13,000 households in the Derry City area over the next few weeks.
Large brown wheelie bins are being delivered to domestic properties within test scheme areas for people to dispose of items including grass cuttings, weeds, flowers, twigs, cold ashes and small amounts of kitchen roll and animal waste.
Collections will take place fortnightly along with either black or blue collections depending on the area.
Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Councillor Michaela Boyle, welcomed the scheme.
“More and more people in our District are recycling and our Council area now boasts one of the highest recycling rates in the North,” she said.
“The introduction of new garden waste collections are very welcome, particularly during the summer season when people are generating more green waste.
“Living in a more eco-friendly way by embracing initiatives like recycling is so important to help build a more sustainable region and to protect our environment for future generations.”
Council’s Waste Services Manager Nicola McCool added: “Recycling garden waste is good for our environment as, like food waste, it is turned into compost which we use in our local cemeteries, roundabouts and parks.
“It will also help reduce the amount of material we are sending to landfill which is costly to ratepayers and harmful to our atmosphere.
“We have ambitious targets to make our region more sustainable by making it easier for people to reduce the amount they waste and helping them recycle more.
“If this pilot scheme is successful, we would hope to roll this service out to more households in the future.”
Council’s recycling team will carry out follow-up door-to-door engagement with people who are part of the garden waste rollout offering advice and support on how to recycle correctly.
Information is also available at www.derrystrabane.com/greenwaste and the free recycling app Bin-ovation.
