Green bin emptied on blue bin day 'mistake'

Editorial Department Meadhbh Monahan - 1503 • Published 3 Sep 2009 09:00 0 Comments

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Over 30,000 tonnes of landfill waste was generated by Fermanagh households last year even though Fermanagh District Council faces EU fines if they do not decrease their waste.

Despite the Council's efforts to educate the community as to what is acceptable in our green and blue bins, it seems that householders and even council refuse collectors can become confused.

Recently in an Enniskillen housing estate, a green bin was emptied on a blue bin collection day, a move that is against Council policy.

"The Supervisor of the Refuse Collection service has spoken with the operative involved and it has been clarified that a mistake was made," said a spokesman from the Council's Technical Services Department.

"This is the first time that I am aware that a green bin has been emptied on blue bin week."

He added: "We have no reason to believe that this operative or any other empties the wrong bins on the wrong week either in error or deliberately, in fact we believe that it very rarely happens."

The spokesman said that it is householders who usually make a mistake by "contaminating" their bins by putting landfill waste or food into the blue bin or recyclables into the green bin.

"When a member of public complains that a bin is not emptied on blue bin week our first question is 'what bin did you have out?' and quite often it is the green bin or it is a blue bin that has contaminants in it and has been rejected."

He wanted to emphasise that "the number of complaints/queries about why blue bins are not emptied, which is usually down to contamination, shows that operatives are inspecting bins and not always emptying them blindly.

"It is Council policy that only blue bins should be emptied on blue bin week and green on green bin week."

Referring to the "contamination level" of Fermanagh's wheelie bins, the spokesman explained: "Our contractor who processes the blue bin waste reports monthly on contamination levels and can tolerate levels up to 10 per cent before the Council is penalised financially.

"Our contamination level over the course of the last financial year was 5.48 percent. In the early days of the blue bin collection system contamination levels did exceed 10 per cent but with co-operation of refuse collection staff, continued education and bin inspectors, we have reduced this significantly. "

He added: "Obviously we would like it to be even lower and hopefully as we continue to increase recycling and increase what we take in the blue bin, the less contamination there will be. With the increase in range of materials accepted in blue bin such as glossy catalogues (these items previously would have been viewed as contaminants) and more items to be added by September time, contamination should decline further."

The Council report to the Northern Ireland Energy Agency through a system called WasteDataFlow, where all tonnages of waste are collated for disposal and recycling.

This database shows that in 2008/2009 a total of 30,142.54 tonnes of landfill waste was collected from 25,081 households in the county, producing 1.20 tonnes per household.

It also shows that in the same period 10,650.57 tonnes was recycled/composted from 25,081 households producing 0.42 tonnes per household.

"The average recycling rate in Fermanagh is 27.85 perc ent and the composting rate is 6.79 per cent," the spokesman concluded.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 03 Sep 09

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