Bryson retains Castlereagh recycling contract as councils merge

Bryson is to continue servicing around 14,500 households across Castlereagh – an area of urban and rural properties located to the south of Belfast – for a further 12 months, with an option to extend for one year.

Bryson will process recyclables collected under the deal at its material recycling facility (MRF) at Mallusk in Newtownabbey, and will be required to share revenues received from the sale of all collected materials with the council on a ‘50/50’ basis.

However the renewed contract, worth over £700,000, does not include some 2,000 households previously serviced by Bryson, which are due to come under the authority of Belfast city council when local government reform takes place on April 1 2015.

Merge

The move to merge the 26 local authorities in Northern Ireland into 11 new ‘super’ councils, has raised questions over whether separate or commingled recycling collections should take preference.

At present, the majority of households in the Castlereagh area separate their recycables, with paper, cans and plastic bottles designated for 55-litre black boxes, while mixed glass, card, textiles and batteries are placed in red boxes.

And, around 850 households in the area use a triple-stack wheeled bin for the collection of mixed plastics.

Under the reform, which will see Castlereagh merge with Lisburn city council to become Lisburn city and Castlereagh borough council, the 2,000 households that come under the Belfast remit will have to adopt a single blue bin for commingled recycling.

Meanwhile, residents moved to Belfast city council will see their recycling collections reduced from a weekly to fortnightly service.

The Bryson contract award notice states: “The contract is required to provide continuity of service provision post 1.4.2015, so as to facilitate the Northern Ireland Local Government Reform process and the merger of Castlereagh Borough council and Lisburn city council to form the new Lisburn City and Castlereagh District Council, thereby enabling the new council to carry out an overall review of kerbside collection services in the context of the new council area.”

Debate

Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Claire McCallum, communications manager at Bryson Recycling, said: “We are going through some changes that our councils are dealing with but we welcome the move to reduce the huge number of councils here in Northern Ireland, it will definitely open the debate on what the best way of collecting is.”

In February, Regen Waste was announced as preferred bidder for a 10-year contract to process residual waste on behalf of neighbouring Newry and Mourne district council and Down district council, which are also set to merge from April (see letsrecycle.com story).