Belfast City Council needs to take a lead in increasing recycling rates across the city, Alliance Councillor Peter McReynolds has said.
Councillor McReynolds was speaking ahead of tonight’s Belfast City Council meeting, in which he will bring a motion calling for the Council to commit to introducing glass recycling across the city as soon as possible.
It follows the Council’s recent Waste Framework consultation, which while it will see the introduction of a stacker system for recycling, however glass recycling for all houses will not be ensured until autumn 2022.
“It is unacceptable Belfast does not already have household glass recycling as standard across the city, especially when neighbouring Councils have been able to provide this service for years,” said Councillor McReynolds.
“Whilst we welcome the move to increase glass recycling, the timescale is too long. We want to see interim measures introduced so everyone can recycle glass at home as soon as possible. Glass is one of the heaviest materials to be recycled and as waste costs are measured by weight, Belfast is clearly losing out by not making glass recycling easier, not only in terms of the environment but also in terms of cost to ratepayers.
“Belfast City Council must take a lead on this issue, we cannot afford to delay the introduction of city-wide household glass recycling any longer.”