Coleraine Borough Council

COLERAINE Borough Council provides six civic amenity sites throughout the Borough with recycling points at each site dedicated to a range of household waste from paper to glass bottles and paint and large white home appliances. Council would like to inform the public of new opening times for its Recycling & Disposal Centres which will be introduced from the end of March. All amenity sites will open six days a week; new opening times are: Monday 30th March to Saturday 2nd May all sites will be open from 8.30am to 7.45pm. From Monday 4th May to Saturday 19th September 8.30am to 9.00pm, Monday 21st September to Saturday 24th October 8.30am to 7.45pm and Monday 26th October to Saturday 27th March 8.30am to 3:45pm. All sites will be closed on Sunday. Residents in the Coleraine Borough area recycle forty two percent of their waste. This is a positive and encouraging indicator that people are actively recycling in their homes and for our efforts, Coleraine comes joint sixth out of the twenty six council areas in Northern Ireland for recycling. Residents can recycle at the Recycling & Disposal Centres at Coleraine, Portrush, Portstewart, Garvagh, Kilrea and Castlerock, at recycling points based at the larger supermarkets throughout the Borough, their home blue bins, charity shops and by purchasing a home composting bin for £5 from Coleraine's Depot based at Loughanhill Industrial estate. Coleraine Borough Council's Waste and Recycling Officer, Fiona Watters is pleased by how well Coleraine is doing when it comes to recycling and is encouraging people to increase their efforts coming into the Spring and Summer months; she said, "We are delighted by the efforts made by people to reduce, re-use and recycle their rubbish and thank everyone for helping us achieve such a great recycling rate. However, we need to keep up the good work and strive to do even better. "Most people agree it's wrong to waste food but are unaware that we throw out up to one third of all the food we buy. Not only does this affect the environment, it also costs us money - about £460 every year. Think ahead before going shopping, for instance, write a shopping list, shop online, plan your meals for the week ahead to save food and money. "You could also sell on any unwanted items, reuse packaging and donate items to charity shops all of which are simple but effective steps to reduce household waste and save money." There are a number of advisory centres and websites with information on saving waste and money: lovefoodwaste.com; freecyle.org.uk and of course visit Council's website for local guidance; www.colerainebc.gov.uk.