All change for 22,000 homes in Down as bin collections switch to a four day week

All change for 22,000 homes in Down as bin collections switch to a four day week

18 January 2012

THE weekly chore of putting out the bin is set to change for 22,000 homes in Down District.

Down Council is moving to a four day bin collection week which will mean the collection day will change throughout the district for most of the 28,500 households.

Under the new plans, which are set to commence on January 31, all collections will cease on Mondays and binmen will begin collecting earlier in the morning. All bins will have to put out by 7.30am.

Savings of around £50,000 will be generated by the changes and council officials say it will help remove confusion over bin collections during holidays.

The council’s Operations Manager, Joe Parkes, told a meeting of the Environment Committee last week, that new calendars will be issued to every household explaining the changes and detailing the new bin collection days.

The councillors were also told bin men will begin collecting food waste from August but only from houses which have a brown recycling bin.

Seven litre ‘caddies’ will be distributed to houses into which food waste will be dumped. The waste will be put into biodegradable bags and taken to a complex within Drumanakelly landfill site for sorting before being taken away by a specialist company.

Council director, Mr. Canice O’Rourke, told councillors it is estimated that 19 per cent of all Down District’s household rubbish is food waste.

However, he said there are no plans to extend the brown bin system to all houses in the district as it would be too expensive.