Beverage cartons can now be recycled in Belfast’s blue bins

BELFAST residents with a blue bin will be able to recycle drinks cartons from Friday, March 1.

It’s hoped the new move will help boost the city`s recycling rates and means recyclers will no longer have to bring their cartons to recycling banks.

Paper-based cartons are popular with manufacturers who use it to package everything from fruit juice to milk and even soup and chopped tomatoes.

It’s estimated that these cartons make up around 2.3kg of waste per household that could be recycled and diverted from landfill.

Councillor Pat McCarthy, chairman of the council`s Health and Environmental Services Committee, said: “Every little helps as they say, and this is very welcome news for Belfast households.

“We`ve been reminding people of the importance of recycling as much of their household waste as possible and it`s great that these cartons can now enter the recycling chain instead of going to landfill.”

Fay Dashper, recycling operations manager at Alliance for Beverage Cartons & the Environment (ACE) UK, added: “The high quality wood fibres found in beverage cartons are flexible and strong and can be recycled up to six times, making them a valuable raw material for new paper products.

“We are committed to increasing carton recycling in the UK and our work with councils in Northern Ireland takes us a step closer to achieving that.”

In 2011, Belfast City Council sent around 80,000 tonnes of waste to landfill while 38,000 tonnes was recycled.

It costs council £800 to process every lorry filled with black bin waste, compared to just £80 for a truck-load of recyclable waste.

For more information visit www.belfastcity.gov.uk/waste