The Strangford Assembly candidate praised efforts of the Council’s Environment Department, whose work to date has already secured a spike in the Borough’s recycling rate.
She said: “I am delighted the Council is continuing to take action to enable more homes to help reduce landfill costs and improve recycling. And I hope the distributing of compostable food caddy bags will see a similar result to a short online promotion before Christmas – which saw the amount of recycled food waste jump to over 40 percent.
“Every week money is literally being thrown away, with the amount of food waste dumped in the black bin costing Ards and North Down rate payers up to £1million in landfill tax.
“In line with the Alliance Party policy on improving our environment and increasing recycling, I am delighted that the new council initiative is being received so positively by the community, with all households set to receive a letter and their first roll of compostable bags before the end of February.
“Certainly some people are concerned that food waste could cause smells and other problems, however council have addressed this by providing these free compostable bags. They are perfect to use in the free kitchen caddys also provided by the council.
“The second benefit of recycling food in the caddy is you can see first-hand how much food is wasted. I have already reduced the amount of food I buy such as bread. This means I am cutting down on waste and saving money by only buying the amount of food we need.
“I look forward to the next update report when I expect the recycling target to be smashed thanks to the concentrated efforts of our great community.”
If anyone needs a brown bin or kitchen caddy they can call the council who will deliver one per household. email: recycling@ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk or telephone: 0300 013 3333 and select option 3 for recycling