Northern Ireland is to receive £2 million funding in an attempt to reduce the country’s waste and increase recycling and reuse. The news of the new cash injection brings the total amount of funding available for such schemes this year to over £6 million. The money has been provided out of the Rethink Waste fund of NI’s Department of Environment. Speaking about the third round of funding, environment minister Edwin Poots said the move shows that properly handled waste can be a great asset to the economy in Northern Ireland. He added that recycling levels have increased greatly over the years ... Full Story

Councils in Northern Ireland could face tougher targets for household recycling, if the country’s Environment Minister gets his way. Edwin Poots warned to there could also be sanctions for local authorities which fall below par, adding that while most councils are currently performing well, many still have work to do. The minister even suggested setting the bar higher than the strict European Union targets currently in place, in order to get authorities stepping up their efforts. He said that he hopes the government can divert 50 percent of the country’s waste away from landfill by 2020, adding that he believes such ... Full Story

The body which represents councils in the UK has been accused of defying government policy by encouraging fortnightly bin collections. After it launched a survey asking about the recycling and refuse programmes of councils, the Local Government Authority (LGA) has been criticised by the Department for Communities. The LGA is misusing taxpayers’ money and pressuring local authorities to scrap weekly bin collections, according to Local Government Minister Bob Neil. The LGA has however insisted that the survey was cheap to run and claims it has not formed an opinion on the best method for refuse collection. At a time when tax rates ... Full Story

A new survey has revealed that some councils are making residents sort their rubbish into as many of nine different bins in a bid to boost recycling. The average number of bins and caddies across the country is however four, according to the Taxpayers’ Alliance research. The pressure group named and shamed Newcastle-under-Lyme as the council which insisted on the most bins. Householders in that part of the country are given a waste food caddie for the kitchen and another for kerbside collections, as well as separate containers for rubbish, cans, textiles, garden waste, glass, paper, cardboard and plastic. Chelmsford, Middlesbrough, Aberdeenshire ... Full Story

A man from Essex has been fined £240 for putting his recycling out every week instead of every fortnight. Leslie Brooks, 48, was ordered to pay the fine after ignoring previous warnings from Basildon Council about when to put out his pink recycling sacks. The move, which has been slammed as ‘Orwellian’ by some action groups, is the council’s first prosecution of this kind. While the actual fine was just £75, Mr Brooks also had to pay a victim surcharge of £15 and court costs of £150. The charge was brought under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 by Basildon Magistrates’ Court. Basildon ... Full Story

While households across the UK have been forced to deal with infrequent collections throughout the holiday and blistery weather, one local authority told householders to dispose of their own waste. The frequency of rubbish collections across the country has left many householders aggrieved at city services, but feelings have been exacerbated as Aberdeenshire Council told residents to dispose of their own waste, if pickups did not arrive in time because of recent heavy snowfall. The council has advised residents to take charge of their own waste management via an announcement on its website. The local authority said ... Full Story

Households that have had no bin collections because of severe wintry storms in the lead up to Christmas are set to have services restored sometime this week. Waste collectors have said that services will continue as normal by the end of this week for residents in Dublin. Collections will rotated for maximum efficiency with the north side of the city having black bins collected first and the south side brown bins. Next week, collection crews will swap and collect brown bins on the north side and black bins on the south side. Dublin City Council said ... Full Story

Consumers are no longer going to have to pay recycling fees for large home appliances to be removed, said Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration. After numerous complaints were received, the EPA has drafted revisions to current policy that will ban retailers from charging fines for old appliance removals and disposals. According to Cheng Chi-pu, the EPA’s Recycling Fund Management Board division head, said the new rules would make it difficult for businesses to charge for such services. New rules will cover televisions, washing machines, air conditioners and refrigerators. Furthermore, the new policy is expected to go into effect ... Full Story

A new £1m recycling facility has opened in Leicestershire village for public use. The county council-owned site sits on the edge of Moutsorrel and will replace the centre at Sileby, which has now gone defunct. Local residents first opposed the building on Granite Way as fears grew that the facility would cause noise pollution and increase traffic. The council, however, said that the recycling centre would greatly reduce pollution and allow for more efficiency than the previous site. Protestors continued to oppose the move, however, saying the building would be too close to residential areas Over a ... Full Story

Nearly 20,000 households are set to receive sealed lockable boxes as part of a new food waste collection scheme in Edinburgh. The lockable boxes will be issued to the 20,000 homes as part of a new pilot designed to test a variety of housing types in the capital’s eastern districts. If the project proves successful, the food waste collections scheme will be offered to the remainder of the city, which will include 250,000 homes. Each year, around 50,000 tonnes of food rubbish is thrown away in Edinburgh. The council said with the new collection programme it hopes to recycle around 20,000 tonnes ... Full Story

West Oxfordshire is headed for major changes in the way its household waste is dealt with as a new collection scheme is rolled out in the council. Beginning Monday, 43,000 residences in the district will begin the new scheme, which will bring about the beginning of the end for weekly collections. A new wheelie bin will be provided to each household for non-recyclable waste and collected fortnightly. The move is a bid to further encourage recycling in the region and a new food scraps collection will also be introduced weekly. The weekly collection of recyclable items like paper and plastic will continue ... Full Story

Dublin’s waste will be sent to landfills across the country costing the Government €20m, pulled from taxpayer funding, because the capital’s dumpsites are now at capacity. The Poolbeg incinerator has seen a series of delays amidst a deepening waste crisis. Environment Minister, John Gormley, who has opposed the incinerator project from the beginning, continues to campaign against the facility being built. Meanwhile, rubbish trucks are hired to cart the city’s waste off to other areas of the country as the capital awaits a more permanent waste solution. The extra cost for taxpayers to send waste into up to 10 counties could reach ... Full Story