News

Get Ready to Hit the 40% Target!

30 August 2006

North Down Borough Council has started work on the Borough's new Household Waste Recycling and Environmental Education Centre at Balloo Avenue in Bangor. This will facilitate more recycling across the Borough and help Council meet its next big target of 40% of household waste being recycled by 2010.

This new facility will replace the current Rathgael amenity site but offer double the capacity. Customer use has been at the forefront of the design process and so, for example, the site will be very clean—you will not need to put on old clothes to use it and will be able to recycle on your way to and from work.

The site will offer facilities to recycle all sorts of materials including glass bottles and jars, drinks cans, newspapers and magazines, textiles, plastic bottles, garden waste, waste engine oil, waste cooking oil, scrap metal, fridges and freezers, paint, timber, televisions and computer monitors, fluorescent tubes, car batteries and household batteries.

Speaking about the new facility Mayor of North Down Councillor Alan Leslie said "Residents of North Down are making a great effort to recycle both at home through the kerbside blue bin scheme and through the facilities at our civic amenity sites and bring centres, however, there is always more than we can do and, indeed, that we will have to do to meet the target to recycle 40% of household waste by 2010. Council believes the new recycling centre will make it easier for residents of the Borough to recycle and we hope that when it opens next Summer people will use it regularly and work with us to meet our targets and make North Down a truly environmentally friendly Borough."

The environmental education centre will facilitate visits by groups and schools interested in environmental issues. It will furnish information not just about reducing, reusing and recycling, but also about renewable energy, Council’s proposed wind turbine, the Balloo Wood complex, the Wetlands Park at the new Business Village, etc.

The new recycling facility will be powered by 'green' energy sources. These will include photovoltaic panels in the roof that will generate electricity to power the lighting and some of the plant and machinery on the sites and solar panels to provide heat for water and offices.

Council is also planning to build an 850KW wind turbine in Balloo Wood, which will generate additional power for the facilities. It will save Council £150,000 in energy costs each year. Council has received a grant of £500,000 toward the total costs of £750,000 for the wind turbine from the Central Energy Efficiency Fund.

This new facility will compliment the Waste Transfer Station currently under construction at Balloo Drive in Bangor. This is a site at which household and commercial waste can be compacted for onward transport.

Both the Household Waste Recycling Centre and the Waste Transfer Station will open in Summer 2007.

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