Belfast City Council will not be collecting glass recycling for at least another month.
The council slipped out a brief announcement on its website at the end of August stating that the last review had failed to alter the suspension of the glass collection service. It is believed that the suspension is connected to staff shortage issues, and in particular a lack of drivers.
Glass waste has been building in homes since the suspension was announced on July 27, and residents will continue to build their own bottle banks until at least the end of September, when the council reviews the situation again.
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The council statement reads: “Our glass recycling collection service remains temporarily suspended. This follows a planned review of our operation.
“This affects households that have a purple or black glass recycling box. The suspension does not affect North Belfast wheelie box trial collections and Bryson weekly box collections.
“We appreciate this is a huge inconvenience and we’re very sorry for this disruption to our service. We will review our operation again in another four weeks. We will keep residents informed through our website and social media channels.
It adds: “You can take glass recyclables to your nearest bottle bank. If you have access to transport, you can bring glass recyclables to your nearest recycling centre. We appreciate this will not be possible for everyone.”
At this week’s meeting of the full council, Green Councillor Anthony Flynn said: “I am incredibly disappointed that we have had to extend the suspension for another four weeks. Recycling is about sustainability obviously, but it is also about people forming habits.
“People get into the habit of doing the same thing every week, of putting out the glass. It is not only about the impact of the services being suspended, it is the long term impact I am particularly worried about.
“We already know the impact the pandemic had on our recycling rate - it went down by two percent. Glass recycling across the city for 22,000 households could now have another knock-on impact - I believe somewhere in the region of another 2.4 percent.
“We already know that 40 percent of households do not have access to a car or a van. So to ask people to just create a little pile in the corner of their room, and then bring it to a recycling centre or a glass bottle bank isn’t good enough for some families.
“And I have had people contact me and ask: “What do I do with this?” They don’t want to put it in the residual waste, and they understand the impact that will then have.
“The more that goes in the black bin, the more that goes in landfill, the more taxation on the council, and the less we have to spend on public services which deliver for people across the city. It is incredibly disappointing, and I really hope we get to a place where it is a sustainable service, and expand the recycling service, as we have been talking about in previous committees.”
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