On average, Northern Ireland recycles just over 5% of household waste, but in Banbridge District Council and Armagh City and District Council's pilot, the rate has hit 55%.
The kerbside trial was launched in April 2002 to collect paper, glass, cans, textiles and plastic from 4,000 households. In the six months since, 215 tonnes of material – enough to fill 11,000 wheeled bins – have been recycled under the scheme.
Compost
Another 1,000 tonnes of garden and kitchen waste was composted in the same period under a kerbside brown wheeled bin scheme launched in April 2001. This covers 4,400 homes in Banbridge and 1,400 in Armagh.
Eric Randall, development manager of Bryson House Recycling, the charity that provided 4,000 recycling boxes for the weekly dry recyclable collections, said that the scheme was the most progressive recycling model in Northern Ireland.
Cost
He said: “Banbridge and Armagh Councils deserve a great deal of recognition for this development. We estimate that for most local authorities, the cost of running a similar programme will soon be less than the cost of landfilling the waste within a couple of years.”
Ninety percent of the materials collected are recycled in Northern Ireland: compost is made by Natural World Products in Keady, South Armagh; paper is processed by Huhtamaki; glass goes to Sean Quinn Glass; textiles to local merchants; plastics to Antrim-based Irish Polymers; and cans to Alcan in Warrington.
The councils are currently looking at plans to expand the collections in April 2003.
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