Recycling survey reveals trend in local households

Recycling survey reveals trend in local households

22 May 2019

A PROVINCE-WIDE recycling survey carried out last month has claimed that one third of householders in the Newry, Mourne and Down Council area were unhappy with how the local authority had asked them to recycle.

The survey — carried out by polling and market research organisation Lucid Talk — revealed that only 20% of those surveyed would recycle when it was convenient for them.

The survey revealed that of those who said they would recycle only when it was convenient, 32% indicated that they would be encouraged to recycle more if there was one bin that took all recycling, including glass — a service that until last month was unavailable in the former Down Council area.

In addition, the survey showed that where the council area could ‘commingle’ glass in the same bin with the rest of their household recyclables — plastic, paper, card, tins and cardboard etc —  householders were on average 80% happy with their glass collection method, compared to 42% of those in council areas that did not.

Re-Gen Waste Ltd managing director, Joseph Doherty, said the survey results indicated that prioritising simplicity and convenience was the best approach to ensuring a high level of household recycling.

He continued: “Since April 2019, glass can now be commingled with household recycling waste in the Down legacy council area, meaning that all householders across Newry, Mourne and Down can now put their glass into their blue bins.

“We should see an marked improvement in recycling figures and a decrease in the percentage of glass placed in black bins across the entire council area.”

Mr Doherty said local authorities need to encourage the maximum number of people to recycle the maximum volume of materials, weighed against the cost of processing the material, and the potential financial benefits from reducing landfill costs, and selling on recyclable material.

“The councils we with work in Northern Ireland, England and Scotland tell us that household friendly schemes such as commingling recyclables, plastic, paper, card, tins and cardboard and glass in one bin, are much preferable to residents than any pre-sort scheme using smaller containers or bins and that it is actively improving their recycling rates,” he said.

Last March, of the households in the Newry, Mourne and Down area that could commingle their glass with their recyclables in the same bin, 26% of respondents said they would recycle less if they had to separate their household waste, including glass waste into separate caddies.

Mr Doherty added: “More and more local authorities are seeing the benefits and cost savings achieved by switching to commingling collection services, alongside an ultra-modern Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) like ours that receives, separates and prepares recyclables for productive use elsewhere.”

The Lucid Talk survey was carried out across all of Northern Ireland’s 11 district council areas.