Conveniently located at the back of Dungiven Sports Pavilion with access through the existing Sports Centre and Health Centre entrance on Chapel Road the HRC has been designed to maintain traffic movement with a one way flow system and spacious set down areas to deposit materials. Staff onsite will be available at all times to assist and direct customers to the various collection points in what will be a fully lit, secure facility. A 20 year Landscape Management Plan has been drawn up to reduce visual impact and integrate the development with the surrounding vegetation.

In order to meet stringent recycling and landfill diversion targets it is necessary for council to continually explore new ways of providing residents of the Borough with convenient user-friendly infrastructure. Increasing taxes on land-filled waste and fines for exceeding landfill targets alongside our desire to protect natural resources have driven this requirement for council to provide residents with the most up to date facilities possible. Dungiven HRC will be a welcome addition to the currently available wide range of recycling options in the Borough.

Caption: From left to right

William Doherty of William Doherty Construction, Mayor Sean McGlinchey Limavady Borough Council, Donal Doyle RPS Consulting Engineers, Philip Greer William Doherty Construction, Noel Crawford Director Environmental Services Limavady Borough Council.

This represents a modest increase of 0.7% percentage points on the previous year’s rate and around 10 percentage points more than that achieved in 2005/06. It also exceeds the current Waste Management Strategy target of a 35% recycling rate to be achieved by 2010.

Let’s Get Wasted – Students turning Trash into Treasure

The Department of the Environment’s Rethink Waste campaign is sponsoring an innovative programme of free ‘Rethink – Revamp – Restyle’ workshops for students across Northern Ireland. The award-winning Fashion Souk is set to deliver the series of free workshops to raise recycling awareness amongst 18 – 25 year olds, and the students get to take their completed works home after the workshops, so they benefit in a practical way by restyling furniture for their homes.  Following the success of the first series of workshops that took place at the start of 2011, this batch of creative classes entitled ‘Let’s Get Wasted’ will take place in Belfast during the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) from 19-26 November and in the North West from 07 November – 07 December. 

Upcycled furniture is becoming increasingly current, not only because of the growing popularity in shabby chic interiors, but also because the recession has led young people to seek out alternative methods to furnish their home.  Not only are vintage items often better quality with interesting design features, revamping items helps reduce waste to landfill and sets the trend for smarter shopping.  

Environment Minister Alex Attwood said, “The Rethink, Revamp, Restyle workshops are an inspiring, innovative and fun way to communicate and demonstrate the benefits of upcycled furniture. Reusing an item of furniture saves the energy associated with manufacturing a new one, which has an enormous and positive impact on reducing CO2 emissions. 10 million items of furniture are thrown away in the UK every year, 3 million of these items could be easily reused; more could be repaired. I would encourage students to attend these workshops and discover how furniture upcycling can help reduce waste sent to landfill.” 

The student furniture and textiles workshops will demonstrate that, instead of blowing your budget to buy brand new furniture and clothes, with imagination and a little know-how you can restyle discarded furniture and soft furnishings and transform you oldest favourite T shirts, jumpers and skirts into something new, allowing them to live on in another form. Reusing and revamping will not only add personality to a dreary student flat, but will also save money.  All workshops are completely free of charge and once furniture and textiles are restyled and recycled, students are invited to take home their works of art to use themselves!

Creator and organiser Alyson McElroy said: “The reuse ethos is at the heart of everything we do.  This programme of student focused workshops is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate how easy it is to breathe new life into unwanted items and thus divert waste from our ever decreasing landfill sites. We provide materials for each workshop and participants will take home the furniture and textiles they have repurposed. Our facilitators will cover everything including how to revamp old-fashioned tables and chairs to transforming jumpers into scatter cushions & wine holders. It is usually said one person’s trash is another one’s treasure, but we want students to recognise the treasure in their trash and inspire them to get creative, find new ways they can make waste work for their pockets and the environment.”

Free Belfast workshops and showcase event will take place from 19 – 26 Nov (European Week for Waste Reduction) and from 7 November to 7 December across Coleraine, Derry (showcase event on 19 November), Ballymena, Ballymoney, Magherafelt, Limavady, Strabane and Newtownabbey.  Log on to www.rethinkrevamprestyle.com to register for a workshop at a college campus near you.  Let’s Get Wasted is sponsored by the Department of the Environment’s Rethink Waste campaign.

What is it all about?
The European Week for Waste Reduction week focuses on highlighting waste reduction activities across Europe and raising awareness of ways to reduce our waste. This year it is taking place from the 19th to the 27th of November 2011. There are prizes to be won! Six awards will be handed out to the most outstanding actions: one for each of the five categories plus the Jury’s Favourite Award for the most innovative.

Take Part!
You can take part with your own event by completing the registration form and sending it back to us. Please note the closing date for registration forms is Friday 4th of November by 5pm.

How can I get involved?
In order for your event to be part of the European Week for Waste Reduction it must focus on one or more of the following themes:

1. Too much waste: actions that aim to raise awareness about the urgency of reducing the quantity of waste we produce.
2. Better production: actions that raise awareness about the measures taken up by businesses and industry to reduce the amount of waste generated through their economic activity.
3. Better consumption: actions that aim to make the consumer think carefully about his/her choices; and think about the environment each time a purchase is made.
4. A longer life for products: actions that seek to remind the public that products can have a second life, by reusing them.
5. Less waste thrown away: actions that demonstrate different solutions to avoid having to throw so much in the bin.

Recycling cannot be promoted as part of the week as it strictly focuses on prevention of waste.

Examples of actions:

Businesses:

• Run a paper campaign to reduce paper consumption in your office
• Measure food waste generated in restaurants and canteens
• Engage staff in waste reduction activities, such as swap shops or waste free lunches

Local authorities:

• Recycling centre interventions for reusable items
• Office waste campaign
• Unwanted mail sign up sessions and waste reduction information sessions
• Swap days for reusable items

Community Groups:

• Open day
• Information stands in public places, promoting Love Food Hate Waste, Unwanted Mail, etc

Schools:

• Waste free packed lunch competition
• Craft making day from reused items

Register now!
You will need to register what you plan to do as part of the week with us, as Rethink Waste are organising the week for Northern Ireland. Please fill in the registration form and email it to ewwr2011@wrap.org.uk. After we have received your proposal we can then give you resources, such as posters, to help with your event.

For further information on the week visit: www.ewwr.eu or email ewwr2011@wrap.org.uk.

The publication includes information on how the public can help contribute to the waste management effort in their area by focusing the3Rs of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. There is also a round-up of the work being carried out by the NWRWMG’s seven constituent councils, as well as an update on the £500m public procurement exercise to deliver new waste management facilities for the North West region.

Please click on the link below for more information go to:

http://www.northwestwaste.org.uk/downloads/waste-watch-newsletter.shtml 

Jonathan Wilson, Technical and Waste Management Officer, Coleraine Borough Council, explains, “PAS 100 certification effectively guarantees that our compost is safe, reliable and offers high performance. The certification covers the entire compost production process from raw materials and production methods through to quality control and lab testing.  

“We make our compost from garden waste – such as leaves, hedge cuttings, small branches and grass – brought to us by the public, via our recycling sites, and from landscapers, who deliver directly to our Letterloan site.  During each twelve week cycle we shred and turn the material, ensuring every batch of compost reaches high temperatures.  This means any harmful bacteria and pathogens are destroyed.  The final stage is to pass the material through a screen to regulate the size of the compost, giving us a quality product which is certified to BSI PAS 100 standard.”

The next stage of development for Coleraine Borough Council’s composting operation is to create a finer grade of compost resulting in an even better product. 

The Association of Organics Recycling Certification Scheme, who assesses Coleraine Borough Council’s composting site, is the only UK scheme providing third party assessment of conformity with BSI PAS 100.  The process is rigorous and compost producers are inspected annually.  Every year producers must continue to meet the high PAS 100 standards and have their compost re-tested.

Members of the public can bring their garden waste to any one of Council’s recycling sites in Coleraine, Portrush, Portstewart, Kilrea, Garvagh and Castlerock.  Compost is available for sale at £3 per tonne.  Please phone 028 7034 3846 for details. 

For further information on recycling and composting at home in Coleraine Borough Council area, please go to www.colerainebc.gov.uk/recycle or phone the Recycling Helpline, Technical Services on 028 7034 7272. 

Photo caption: “Jonathan Wilson, Technical & Waste Management Officer, and Rachel Bain, Biodiversity Officer, at Coleraine Borough Council’s PAS 100 approved composting site.”

The demonstration was part of the Department of the Environment’s Rethink Waste campaign in Northern Ireland and aimed to help people find out how to save up to £50 a month on food. 

Every month, the average family throws out £50 worth of food.  That is around one third of all the food we buy and most of it could have been eaten.  Coleraine Borough Council is always keen to help everyone reduce, reuse and recycle as much of your rubbish as possible. 

Fiona Watters, Waste & Recycling Officer with Coleraine Borough Council explained, “The amount of food we throw out is staggering.  One out of every three bags of shopping ends up in the bin.  Until I really started looking in my own bin, I wouldn’t have believed how much I was throwing out – albeit in the compost bin.  Wherever it ends up, it is still a waste of money and food.  In my house we are guilty of binning the last few slices of bread, yoghurt, lettuce, fruit and potatoes. 

“The good news is that there are a few quick and easy things we can all do to reduce the amount of food we throw away - planning ahead, buying less in the first place and freezing food until you need it.  Using leftovers really is a handy way to make the next meal.”

Professional chef, Emmet McCourt, cooked up a variety of delicious meals with lots of recipe ideas to help us reduce food waste by making good use of those leftovers which might otherwise be thrown away.  People had a chance to sample Emmet’s cooking and take away recipe cards to try it out at home. 

The Love Food Hate Waste campaign aims to raise awareness of food waste and therefore reduce the amount of food waste we send to landfill. In the UK £12 billion is spent every year buying and then throwing away good food which costs the average family £680 a year equating to around £50 per month. The campaign shows that by doing some easy practical everyday things in the home we can all waste less food, which will ultimately benefit our purses and the environment too.

For tips on food planning and storage and over 170 delicious recipes using typical leftovers check out www.lovefoodhatewasteni.org  or come along to see the cookery demonstrations for yourself.

For additional tips and ideas on how you can reduce, reuse and recycle log on to www.rethinkwasteni.org.  The Love Food Hate Waste NI campaign is supported by the Waste and Resources Action Programme NI (WRAP).

Photo caption: “Mayor of Coleraine Borough Council, Alderman Maurice Bradley, pictured with chef Emmett McCourt and member of the public, Ronnie Hopkins, at the Coleraine Love Food Hate Waste Cookery Demonstration funded by Rethink Waste N.I.”

That’s because glass packaging such as bottles and jars can now be disposed of in blue bins following an upgrading of the processing plant by the recycling provider.  This includes wine bottles, beer bottles, spirit bottles, jam jars, coffee jars, sauce jars and medicine bottles.  All that is asked is that residents empty and rinse out their bottles and jars. Lids can be left on.

Currently Coleraine Borough Council, Derry City Council, Limavady Borough Council, Magherafelt District Council and Moyle District Council are accepting glass bottles and jars of any colour into the blue bins, but no window glass, pryex cooking utensils, such as casseroles, or ceramics, such as broken cups or plates.

By recycling not only are the public helping Councils to reduce its waste management bill. It means there’s less waste sent to landfill and a saving in natural resources, as well as a saving in energy and the creation of jobs.

Glass has the unique quality of being able to be recycled over and over again without any loss in quality, this dramatically reduces the use of raw materials and the energy needed to make new glass bottles and jars.

The inclusion of glass in the blue bin will really help to raise recycling rates and save the council money.

Composting is easy – everyone’s doing it!

Coleraine Borough Council ran a free composting demonstration recently at Causeway Street Recycling Site, Portrush.

Thanks to funding from the Department of the Environment’s Rethink Waste campaign, Coleraine Borough Council organised the event to demonstrate the benefits of home composting and how simple this is to do.

Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland carried out the demonstration and had their mobile “Green Machine” and displays to highlight suitable materials for home composting.

Making compost at home couldn’t be easier with a home composter or compost heap.  Every day items from egg shells, tea bags and vegetable peelings to animal bedding and even the contents of the vacuum cleaner – all can go towards making nutritious compost. Garden waste such as grass cuttings, leaves, hedge trimmings, weeds, twigs and small branches (cut into pieces) can also be composted at home in a composter or compost heap. 

Composting is an inexpensive, natural process that transforms your garden and kitchen waste into a valuable food for your flowers and plants.  Give composting a go to reduce your carbon footprint, help keep our rates down, produce a useful product from rubbish and help protect precious peatland habitats. 

Fiona Watters, Waste & Recycling Officer with Coleraine Borough Council explains, “People get into composting for all sorts of reasons.  Some of us are motivated through a love of gardening; many don’t like to waste leftovers or out-of-date food, preferring to put them to good use by making compost; some of us are keen to reduce our carbon footprint; and many people simply want to send less waste to landfill.”

When rubbish is sent to landfill, air cannot get to the organic waste. This means that as food and garden wastes break down they create a harmful greenhouse gas – methane – which may cause global warming and climate change.  However, when this same waste is composted above ground at home, oxygen helps the waste to decompose and hardly any methane is produced. 

Fiona continued: “Making compost at home really is a win-win for people and the planet – composting at home for just one year can save global warming gases equivalent to all the Carbon Dioxide (C02) your kettle produces in a year.  Plus, after about ten months, you will have a free fertilizer that your flowers and pot plants will love. 

Caption: Members of the public attending Coleraine Borough Council’s home composting demonstration in Portrush with Susan Lynn (right) of Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland

For further information on how you can reduce, reuse and recycle log on to rethinkwasteni.org.

 The questionnaire seeks to ascertain market capability as well as the level of interest to provide the requisite services, the Group wishes to receive replies by the 6^th of May 2011.

Please click on the link to access the questionnaire.NWRWMG_Market Sounding_Mixed_Organic