Blue Bin Recycling Scheme

In October 2002 Magherafelt District Council began the phased introduction of blue bins for the collection of mixed dry recyclables. Distribution of the bins to the 14,000 domestic households in the District was completed in June 2003 and now every house in the District has a blue recycling bin on their doorstep.

In their blue bins householders can recycle newspapers and magazines, cardboard, plastic bottles and steel and aluminium cans. All this material is collected co-mingled on alternate week basis and is delivered to Glassdon Recycling in Toome fpr sorting, baling and transport on to the various end users and reprocessors.

The Blue Bin Scheme has been biggest single initiative to be undertaken by the Council to date and it has helped push the Councils recycling rate to an impressive 35%. The scheme has been extremely well accepted by the residents of the District who have embraced the concept of recycling from the very start. As a result of the excellent participation of the residents of the District the quality of the material collected in the blue bins has been exceptional with a contamination level of only 1-3%.

Every occupied property in the District should now have at least a blue and a black bin for the kerbside segregation of their waste and every householder should ensure that they have the necessary bins to operate the refuse collection system provided by the Council.