Environment and Carbon Footprint Report 2025

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and improving environmental performance year on year.

This is demonstrated through its accreditation to ISO 14001:2015, the international standard for environmental management.

Council’s environment policy can be viewed on the Council website on the Council website's Environmental Policy page.

Council has adopted 2019/20 as its carbon baseline year.

It should be noted that from 1 April 2024 a revision to the Agile Working Policy requires staff to work in the office 3 days per week (previously 2).

Energy Use (Scope 1 & 2)

Year	Energy use (Electric gas oil)	tCO2e (LGA Accounting Tool)	No. employees	tCO2e per employee
2024/25	20,790,645 kWh	4,107	766	5.36
2023/24	21,102,645 kWh	4,380	816	5.92
2022/23	22,840,333 kWh	4,457	830	5.37
2021/22	23,229,518 kWh	4,680	837	5.59
2020/21	17,509,843 kWh	3,714	878	4.23
2019/20	24,552,132 kWh	5,307	880	6.03

Council has reduced its energy consumption by 2% compared to previous year (and by 16% compared to 2019/20 baseline year) due to energy efficiency measures and the implementation of renewable energy projects.

Transport (Scope 1)

Year	Total fuel used by vehicle fleet (litres)	tCO2e (LGA Accounting Tool)	No. employees	tCO2e per employee
2024/25	698,194	1,752	766	2.17
2023/24	698,433	1,768	816	2.17
2022/23	723,504	1,853	830	2.23
2021/22	766,639	1,926	837	2.30
2020/21	713,089	1,816	878	2.07
2019/20	714,228	1,853	880	2.11

Council’s fleet fuel consumption decreased by 1% from previous year (and by 2.3% to the baseline year).

A HVO trial is currently underway. Based on current calculations (2024/25), Council has the opportunity to reduce annual fleet fuel emissions from 1,752 tonnes CO2e (using diesel) to approximately 132 tonnes CO2e by switching entirely to HVO fuel.

Carbon Footprint

Year	Total tCO2e (LGA Accounting Tool)	tCO2e per employee
2024/25	5,859	7.64
2023/24	5,950	7.5
2022/23	6,308	7.6
2021/22	6,606	7.9
2020/21	5,530	6.3
2019/20	7,159	8.1

Council has reduced its carbon footprint by 2% compared to the previous year (and by 19% compared to the 2019/20 baseline year).

This has been achieved through the introduction of energy efficiency measures, electricity being generated from more renewable sources and behavioural change of staff.

The carbon emission per staff member has slightly increased due to drop in employee figures from 816 (2023/24) to 766 (2024/25).

With ever increasing services (e.g. new public toilets, community centres / pavilions, 3 & 4 G pitches etc) along with the leasing of additional buildings means carbon savings achieved are significant against the carbon emission baseline year (2019/20), which had lower demand.

Waste (Scope 3)

Year	Waste generated per employee (kg)	% Recycled	tCO2e from waste landfilled	tCO2e from waste landfilled per employee
2024/25	121.14	60.55%	0	0
2023/24	95.3	52.74%	35.3	0.4
2022/23	115.3	50.2%	48.9	0.06
2021/22	68.0	68%	19.53	0.02
2020/21	69.0	68.7%	19.32	0.02
2019/20	139.7	73.2%	33.7	0.04

Internal waste arisings has increased on previous year due to an increase in material shredded with large office moves and also staff numbers decreasing after voluntary severance.

Staff have achieved an internal recycling rate of 60.55%.

Water (Scope 3)

Year	Water Consumption (m3)	No. of Employees	Water Consumption per employee (m3)
2024/25	50,886	766	66.4
2023/24	49,769	816	61
2022/23	64,003	830	77.1
2021/22	49,897	837	59.6
2020/21	37,870	878	43.1
2019/20	66,764	880	75.9

Water consumption has increased slightly by 8% compared to the previous year (but decreased by 13% compared to 2019/20 baseline year).

An internal desktop audit has been completed to identify historic and possible live water loss events.

One such water loss event was at Brown’s Bay, potentially involving a third party.

Business Miles (Scope 3)

2024/25 baseline year of 265,175.9 miles, 33,147 litres of fuel and 83 tonnes of CO2e.

Commuter Miles (Scope 3)

2024/25 baseline year of 10,733 litres of fuel and 27 tonnes of CO2e.

Key Achievements 2024/25

Environmental Education

• We delivered a series of waste management / sustainability comms campaigns annually, in partnership with WRAP. In terms of waste management specifically, we promoted the new DAERA/WRAP designed My Recycling NI website, which clearly demonstrates end destinations for waste/recycling streams – this provides information and gives confidence to our residents as to the actual end destination of their recycling efforts.
  
  We continue to be a member of the Northern Ireland Resources Network (NIRN) who promote sustainable reuse and repair as a practical and effective way of tackling Northern Ireland’s waste generation and develop opportunities in the Circular Economy.

• Council continues to support the Eco Schools Programme through online learning to all 74 registered MEA schools, including Wrigley’s Litter Less Campaign, Translink Travel Challenge, Single-Use Plastic Project.
  
  Council provided £10,942 to KNIB for 2024/25 academic year to support a new Big Wheelie Bin Challenge to encourage school pupils (and their families) to recycle.
  
  Council and Eco Schools - Charlene McKeown (Environmental Education Manager) delivered an Eco Schools Cluster meeting on the 17 September 2024 which brought together over 30 school teachers and delivery partners.
  
  The Eco Schools team undertook 75 school visits (up from 55 previous year), delivered coastal projects to 3 coastal schools, delivered Wheelie Big Challenge to 10 schools, and awarded new Green Flag awards to 60 schools.
  
  Ulidia Integrated College secured Ambassador School for the third year. 39% (up from 25%) (29, up from 19 schools) of schools have a current Green Flag. 50 Silver Certificate, 59 Bronze Certificates. Ulidia College retain the Ambassador Eco Schools Award.
  
  We continue to keep all MEA schools up to date with funding opportunities including the DAERA Climate Challenge Fund, the Live Here Love Here Small Grants Scheme and the DAERA Marine Litter Capital Grant.
  
  We also keep schools up to date with training opportunities including DAERA/KNIB Climate Change Programme and Carbon Literacy Programme.

• Food For Thought Competition 2025 – engaging with secondary schools in the Borough with the aim to promote food sustainability as part of a wider STEM based Activate Your Curiosity programming with local manufacturers that includes the now annual Brian Cox Summer School.
  
  Winners designed a new food for thought logo, printed on t-shirts and the winning two schools visited the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) at their Greenmount Campus in Antrim.

• Hosted by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, the Summer Science School is the second event to have been held in Northern Ireland and we were delighted to have Professor Cox in attendance.
  
  In addition to Professor Cox, keynote speakers included inspiring TED Talks by industry and academic leaders including Dr. Erin Higgins, Astrophysicist at the Armagh Observatory & Planetarium; Male Midwife Vince Rosales; Fiona Simpson and Suzanne Leslie from Amazon Web Services and Richard Furey from local employer Yelo to name but a few.

• Student Projects – Council hosted x1 BSc Environmental Awareness student from QUB to assist with ISO14001 delivery alongside other sustainable initiatives.

Community Engagement 

• Five climate & sustainability workshop sessions delivered between April and June 2024 to five community groups (U3A, The Inner Wheel, Cairncastle Women’s Institute, Ballymena Probus Club, The Carson Project).
  
  ‘Starting the Loop’ (an educational and sign-posting circular-economy event) was delivered to 5 local businesses and social enterprises on 26 September 2024 in Lanre Town Hall. Community engagement commenced October 2024 to support the implementation of the Christmas Toy Container campaign.
  
  We have delivered environmental education sessions to 10 local community groups, businesses and social enterprises up to 31 December 2024.
  
  Further engagement was held with across Mid and East Antrim, including the Collaborative Growth Network (CGN) through the Net Zero Innovations and Delivery piece with Connor O'Dornan.
  
  The event on the 16 January was hosted in ECOS Sustainability Hub and was delivered to 12 local businesses starting out on their Climate Action Plan development.

• Council awarded £10,782 to 10 projects across the borough (currently being delivered), through the Live Here Love Here Small Grants Scheme in partnership with Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful – projects are to support communities to improve their local area and promote civic pride among residents.

Communications

• We continue to engage with our residents through social media/press releases/website info/Bin-ovation app delivering waste reduction and recycling comms campaigns to help to reach EU recycling targets (50% by 2020 [achieved], 55% by 2025 (not achieved, currently 50.67%, 60% by 2030).

• Between 14 – 20 October 2024 we delivered Recycle Week which focussed on ‘Rescue Me!” recyclates with human personalities.
  
  We supported this campaign through social media (FB, Twitter, Instagram), press release, Council website update, Bin-ovation app update, as well as ‘sharing’ online posts issued by WRAP.

• Throughout Oct – Dec 2024 we delivered Christmas/New-Year-related comms on reducing waste and encouraging recycling.
  
  We also delivered a campaign on the ‘Christmas Toy Container’ project, which encouraged our residents to gift pre-loved/unwanted toys to our recycling centres, which were then provided to local charities to raise funds or were directly gifted to local community groups for families across the borough.
  
  We diverted 3.1 tonnes during this campaign in 2024 (3.2 tonnes in 2023, 5.2 tonnes in 2022, 2 tonnes in 2021, 2.3 tonnes in 2020 and 1 tonne in 2019).

• In March 2025 we delivered a WRAP supported ‘Food Waste Action Week’ comms campaign aimed at encouraging residents to reduce the amount of excess food shopping, to meal plan, to store food properly and to use up leftovers more effectively.
  
  This campaign theme was to ‘Choose What You’ll Use’, highlighting the benefits of buying loose fruit and vegetables and inspiring people to do this wherever they can.
  
  We supported this campaign through social media (FB, Twitter, Instagram), press release, Council website update, Bin-ovation app update, as well as ‘sharing’ online posts issued by WRAP.

Recycling

• Council’s current recycling rate is 50.73% (2024/25). We’ve met the 2020 EU target (50%) but haven’t met the 55% by 2025.
  
  The new Climate Change (N) Act 2022 includes a more ambitious target of 70% for all municipal waste.
  
  Proposed expansion into municipal waste collections from businesses etc in borough.

• April 2024 has seen the introduction of a new one-Council confidential shredding contract with ShredBank.
  
  This not only ensures proper document disposal, it promotes recycling of this material, with carbon savings provided.
  
  This contract has been extended into 2025/26.

Litter

• KNIB Cleanliness Survey: Jul-Sept 2024 - Council scored 70%, which is on par with July-Sept 2023.

• Council continues to support all litter picking volunteer groups across the borough, with a lot of focus on the Eco Rangers in Larne and Carrickfergus, County Antrim Countryside Custodians (Ballymena area) who continue to tackle polluting litter, enhancing our borough.
  
  We also supported the KNIB ‘Big Spring Clean’ throughout March and April 2025.

• In terms of resident complaint reporting re: fly-tipping and littering, we’ve seen a steady decrease in levels (2024-25 = Reports of fly tipping: 294, Complaint substantiated on investigation: 143, Reports of Litter: 48, Complaint substantiated on investigation: 18).

Environment

• Council achieved Platinum level at the 2024 (up from Gold in 2023) Business in the Community NI Environmental Benchmarking Survey.
  
  Council is entering the Awards again in June 2025 with the aim to retain ‘Platinum’ level, based on the reduced carbon emissions and wide range of environmental projects delivered this last year.

• ISO14001 - Council continue to be accredited to IS0 14001:2015 International Environmental Management Standard across all services, with 8 new sites being audited in August 2024. We were reaccredited until 2027.

• Under ISO14001, we have delivered the following over 2024/25:

1. Improve the energy efficiency of Council buildings to help deliver carbon reduction targets and reduce costs.

Target: Target of 10 EE projects (11 now delivered).

Completed:

• Peoples Park external lighting

• STLC – Pool areas completed (entire centre now upgraded)

• Showgrounds – Internal lighting (high use areas) completed

• Showgrounds - External lighting (amenity, bulkheads etc.) completed

• Carrick Civic centre – Internal (suitable areas/ ceiling grid dependant)

• Carrick Town Hall – Internal (excluding conference room low burn)

• Civic & Town Hall – External building and courtyard

• Oakfield CC

Planned:

• Larne LC Pool area (completes)
• The Braid (various areas)
• Estate wide EE review including thermal performance investment opportunities- CWI & loft / void insulation.
• Lighting controls for dusk to dawn lighting also estate wide.

2. ​Maximize the use of renewable energy sources to help deliver carbon reduction targets and reduce costs.

Target: Target of 3 solar projects 6 will be delivered by year end.

Q4 Jan – March 2025 delivery:

• Portglenone Marina
• Waveney Rd HRC & Nursery
• The Braid – put on hold for wider review of Net Zero opportunity - M&E system
• 2 Solar PV arrays to get addition of co-located storage
• Sullatober Transfer (20kWh)
• Multi-story car pk (20kWh)
• 4 new solar systems
• 4 new BESS arrays
• Still finalising sites but will continue with a focus on waste on decarbonisation of waste and possibly parks sites.

3. Deliver an energy efficiency education programme to Council staff.

Target: Deliver to 100% of staff over 2 years.

• 317 staff have successfully completed the Energy Efficiency Awareness module with a further 279 still to complete.

4. Implement water-saving technologies into Councils Capital Works Programme.

Target: Delivered- Projects are typically designing in water saving technology as standard.

• Water saving technologies incorporated into design spec for capital projects, & minor works refurbishments.
• Carnfunnock CP – will have both sensors and waterless technology being specified.
• Future public toilet refurbs & new builds, if pilot is successful.

5. Maximize the efficient use of buildings and facilities.

Target: Complete review of energy /thermal efficiency of Council estate.

• The review is ongoing with a range of attributes being considered for each building including incl. age, insulation, lighting, primary heating systems, any secondary heat sources including renewable energy sources and windows).
• EPCs - with rising energy costs, they are a useful tool to see where the property is lacking in energy efficiency and how you can make improvements.
• Disposals have begun, and recommended improvements to the thermal envelope, heating controls added & lighting upgraded.

Staff movements:

• Env Health from Smiley into Sir Thomas Dickson (Dec 2024) - complete
• HR moving to The Braid (June 2025)
• Finance moving to The Braid (June 2025)

6. To reduce fuel usage across fleet by 5% each year, over the next 3 years, compared to 2022/23.

Target: To deliver Eco-Driver training to fleet officers as part of CPC. HVO trial.

• 2023-24: 697,835.5 litres
• 2024-25: 675,186.7 litres, 4% decrease.
• Eco Driver Training continues to be rolled out. 190 drivers through CPC have completed over 2024/25.
• Telematics – now rolled out across all MEA fleet.
• HVO Trial – vehicles currently being delivered March 2025 onwards.
• Transport Manager has secured a new gas analyser which will monitor gas output and particulate matter.

7. To collate MEA staff commuter and business miles for 2023/24 (baseline figure) and 2024/25.

Target: To determine both a baseline and 2024/25 Scope 3 emissions from commuter and business miles.

• Work ongoing with HR to determine Council business miles for 2024/25 (completion in March 2025).
• Commuter miles calculated for 2023/24 – will re-calculate based on agile working policy of 3 days in office (and pro rata).
• Use of gov.uk carbon conversion 2024 factor for both types of transport.

8. To develop the ECOS Hub as a sustainability hub.

Target: Secure c£2.5 grant funding for Council under the Hytech NI project

• An Invest NI approval decision is anticipated in Summer 2025.
  This could unlock £2.5m funding to develop skills and demonstration offer around renewables, green hydrogen production and usage and wider environmental education at the existing Ecos Business Hub and Conferencing Centre in Ballymena. 
  The proposal would also provide funding for Council to trial a range of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
• The proposed project aligns closely with Council’s i4C Innovation and Cleantech Centre and Hydrogen Training Academy initiatives.

9. Highlight organizations and retailers that stock Fair Trade products in our Borough.

Target: To retain Fairtrade status and engage with schools and residents during Fairtrade Fortnight so that awareness would be raised.

• Monday 9 September – Sunday 22 September
  MEA schools - Fair Trade competition by submitting a:
  • Fair Trade Project
  • Fair Trade Painting/ Drawing or Collage or
  • Fair Trade Poem
• Advertised on our social media channels, Facebook (1,200 followers) and Instagram (550 followers) and sent to all schools in the borough.

​10. Encourage more habitats, halting biodiversity loss.

Target: By the end of 2024 the oyster population will have increased in the Borough.

• 900 oysters in 30 cages installed.
• The restoration initiative could see up to 900 million oyster larvae released into surrounding waters every year.
  In addition to supporting the expansion of wild populations, the oysters will help boost biodiversity and improve water quality by filtering pollutants.
• Network of nurseries:
  • Glenarm Marina
  • Carrick Marina
  • Belfast Harbour
  • Bangor Marina.

11. Delivery Climate Canopy Project.

Target: Through Climate Canopy Project by the end of 2024 -100,000 trees  will be planted across the borough.

• Tree & Woodland Strategy being developed, will be ready for consultation early 2025, and implementation in Summer 2025.
• Climate Canopy
• Tree numbers: 16,680
• Hectares: 12.29
• Schools: 6
• Com. Groups: 10
• Site visits to schools: 1
• Site visits to community groups: 2

12. Undertake review of MEA Procurement Policy in line with new procurement Regulations going live on 24 February 2025.

Target: To ensure all contract managers have understanding and mechanism to set minimum quality standards in contracts.

• New regulations and procurement processes - open, competitive flexible.
• Competitive Flexible procedure will give CM’s more scope to consider environmental, sustainability needs of MEA when they are preparing documentations, allowing site visits, presentations, and demonstrations of systems to be included in tender specifications.
• Procurement training on new regulations will be mandatory and rolled out across the Council to all relevant officers involved in procurement of goods services and works.
• Officers attended SIB/SNI Sustainable Procurement training on 4 March – resources available on SIB website.

Looking forward to 2025/26:

• Establishing new ISO14001 2024/25 environmental objectives/targets: energy efficiency, renewable technologies (energy), water, estate review, fleet, office equipment disposal (circular economy), biodiversity (seagrass pontoon), community tree nurseries, nature recovery, community gardens.

Climate

• Council developed a new Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 2023-27 which commits Council to achieve net zero by 2040 and support the Borough to net zero by 2050.
  It involved extensive collaboration across all service areas and includes six key themes: Good Governance and Community Leadership, Economy, Transport, Resource Management, Protecting the Environment and Buildings & Energy.
  The Plan will deliver key actions to help deliver climate mitigation (including carbon reduction targets) and climate resilience, ensuring both Council services and communities are prepared for the impacts of climate change.
  This Plan continued to be delivered over 2024/25.

• In 2023/24 Council officers also developed a new MEA Adaptation Plan using the Climate NI ‘NI Adapts’ Planning toolkit which aims to support organisations to undertake a methodological approach to ‘adaptation’ with the overall aim of enabling NI to build resilience to the potential negative impacts of climate change, whilst allowing us to take advantage of any possible opportunities.
  This Plan continued to be delivered over 2024/25.

• Working with Net Zero Innovations and Delivery Manager to develop business engagement for carbon reduction and to explore non-technical barriers to decarbonise Council.

• Council has continued to deliver actions to meet the new Fleet Strategy which focus on reducing fleet emissions, drive efficiencies to ensure a cost and effective fleet and continue to ensure a safe and complaint fleet.
  Council officers are undertaking an HVO trial with Kennedy Fuels over 2024 and into 2025.

• Council has adopted a ‘cradle to grave’ (sustainable) tyre management system with Michelin.
  Headline figures for 2024 include savings of 10 tonnes of CO2e, 4.5 tonnes reduction in material use, 3.1 tonnes reduction in waste, 4,624 litres fuel savings.
  Tyres are re-grooved and re-used and eventually recycled in road making materials.
  Council is using less tyres and the longevity reduces particulate air pollution.

• Climate Mitigation:

  • Populating Climate Essentials toolkit to review carbon emissions by service/buildings etc – strategic decision-making tool – all baseline data (2019/20) up to 2023/24 now uploaded for MEA buildings and fleet fuel, 2024/25 to follow.

  • Supporting new agile working (incl. space utilization review).

  • Supporting cleantech and green hydrogen developments with Economic Development.

• Climate Adaptation:

  • MEA Adaptation Plan 2023-2037 – year 2 (of 4) now completed. Actions progressing well.

  • ArcPro Climate Project - This project is well established - the Acting Climate and Sustainability Manager and the GIS Officer have worked further using ArcPro GIS to develop an online map viewer - focus has been on flooding-related impacts across Council assets.
    Further to this, specific staff provided asset-relevant information on the current value in terms of biodiversity, leisure, income (tenants etc), if essential services are based there e.g. finance, IT, payroll, waste management etc), and also current mitigation measures e.g. water pumps, freeze protection, generators etc.
    Further work will be done on this in 2025/26 to determine the current level of risk, and then residual risk after implementing the mitigation.
    This process will also focus attention on assets which require further investment in terms of resource, capital etc.
    Severe Weather Plans have been developed for high-risk sites and are being used in the service area’s Business Continuity Plan.
    This project was presented to the Regional Community Resilience Group (RCRG) as a best practice example of translating complex climate-related concepts into tangible mapping format for easier interpretation.

  • MEABC/DCSDC Community Resilience Pilot – toolkit now ready and can be tested with local community groups.

• Training - We continue to promote the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) Carbon Literacy Training to local community groups, schools, Elected Members and Council staff throughout 2024/25.

• Council has responded to multiple consultations requests from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), including:

  • DfE Energy One Stop Shop (Nov 2022)

  • DfE Draft Circular Economy Strategy for NI (February 2023)

  • DAERA Climate Regulations for Northern Ireland (June 2023)

  • DAERA Draft Regulations Extended Producer Responsibility [October 2023]

  • DAERA WEEE Regulations [March 2024]

  • DAERA SPPS & Climate Change [March 2024]

  • DAERA Offshore Renewables Installation [March 2024]

  • DAERA Onshore Petroleum Licensing Policy for Northern Ireland [April 2024]

  • DAERA Rethinking Our Resources: Measures for Climate Action and a Circular Economy in NI [June 2024]

  • DAERA Blue Carbon Action Plan [June 2024]

  • DESNZ UK Emissions Trading Scheme [August 2024]

  • Defra Code of Practice for Sampling & Reporting at Materials Recover Facilities (MRFs) [October 2024]

  • Development of a Just Transition [December 2024]

  • DESNZ UK ETS Carbon Leakage [March 2025]

  • DfC Fuel Poverty [March 2025]

  • DAERA NI Climate Action Plan (Summer 2025)

  • DAERA NI Waste Management Strategy [TBC]

Sustainability

• Sustainable Food Places - A total of 5 community fridges are now in operation organised and facilitated by volunteers in partnership with the Council. 
  All fridges have set up important relationships with local businesses which supply the bulk of the food available for those who need it. 
  In addition, where available, locally grown fruit and vegetables are donated from local home growers or allotment holders.

• (Ongoing) Social Supermarket - serving the entire Borough and helping those most in need during the current cost of living crisis. 
  Based at the newly established MEA Community Hub in Ballymena, the ‘Mid and East Antrim Affordable Food Club’ was established in October 2022 and continues to operate into 2025, thanks to funding from the Department for Communities, distributed through Mid and East Antrim Borough Council.
  The Affordable Food Club offers a membership scheme, which gives members access to food at a reduced cost alongside a wraparound service to enable them to address any challenges that contribute to their food insecurity. 
  This is the first ‘Affordable Food Club’ in Northern Ireland.
  Since October, membership has been growing steadily with over 200 members. 
  Membership covers the entire Mid and East Antrim Borough. 
  For those members across the Borough that cannot shop in person, they can access the Club online and avail of the service through the project’s click & collect service. 
  This is assisting the Club in growing their membership across every part of MEA.

• Capital Works: St. Patrick’s Barracks – Capital Works asking us re: BREEAM – movement towards consideration of sustainability in design and operation of major development in Ballymena.
  Project design progressing well.

• Funding - Council secured funding to develop a new ‘Community RePaint’ project whereby residents can drop off un-used/partially used paint tins to our five Household Recycling Centres where it will be provided to local community groups and schools for projects.
  This project supports the waste hierarchy by promoting reuse.
  The project is operating well and is well used by local schools, community groups and individuals.
  Quarterly returns undertaken.

• Funding - Council secured (£22,500) funding from Keep Britain Tidy’s Chewing Gum Task Force Grant to purchase new equipment to tackle gum staining across the borough.
  The funding also provided anti-gum staining signage to promote positive behavioural change.

Circular Economy Initiatives

• Dry recycling collection service to 60k households – processor Bryson Recycling.

  • 2024/25: 12,070 tonnes recycle from MEA

• Organic recycling collection service to 58k households – processor Natural World Products – converted into compost and sold on market, and also provided back to Council for use in parks and open spaces, as well as provision to local community groups and schools for environmental improvement projects.
  NWP also support the annual National Compost Awareness Week which Council promotes.

  • 2024/25: 21,500 tonnes recycled from MEA

• Household Recycling Centres (x5) and Bring Centres (32) – collect a range of HRC materials and Bring Bank materials.
  Materials transferred to local processors (and onto re-processors, in some instances).
  Processors are tendered each year to establish one year contracts.

  • Example – mattresses processed by USEL – a NI social enterprise who is the Leading Provider in Helping People with Disabilities or Health Conditions Gain Employment.
    Recycle all components of mattresses – produce new mattresses, provide bedding to equine sector.

  • Example – DIY materials and furniture items collected by Habitat for Humanity – ReStore Shop - The low-cost, do-it-yourself stores sell donated new and used building supplies and home improvement materials at 50 percent to 75 percent of the normal retail price.
    As well as raising funds for our work, the stores enable local people to improve their homes for less cost, provides opportunities for volunteers from different abilities and backgrounds, and diverts tons of reusable waste from landfill.
    Total provided: 35.68 tonnes over 2024/25.

  • Example - RePaint Community – providing half to ¾ full paint tins to local community and school projects. Reducing landfill and supporting local projects.

• Projects – MEA Christmas Toy Container Project - Council officers realised the huge potential for diverting pre-loved and unwanted toys from landfill, especially on the run up to Christmas, when families are planning to purchase new toys.
  The Mid and East Antrim Christmas Toy Container project will be running this year for the second year.
  Partners: local charities, local community centres, MEA waste team, comms team.

  • 2019 (pilot year): 1 tonne of toys diverted

  • 2020: 2 tonnes of toys diverted

  • 2021: 2.3 tonnes of toys diverted

  • 2022: 5.2 tonnes of toys diverted

  • 2023: 3.2 tonnes of toys diverted (families selling on marketplaces instead)

  • 2024: 3.1 tonnes of toys diverted

• Projects – MEA School Uniform Scheme - Mid and East Antrim's Community Planning Partnership and Waste Management team teamed up with Mid and East Antrim Community Advice Services (MEACAS) and Volunteer Now to help provide families with good quality, clean and pre-worn school uniforms.  
  MEA Poverty Action Group (PAG) are also involved.
  This project has been running since 2019.

  • 2021 – 1,156 uniform items gifted to 700 individuals, savings c. £24,000

  • 2022 – 2,568 uniform items gifted 929 individuals, saving c. £40,000

  • 2023 – 5,369 uniform items gifted to 1,676 individuals, saving c. £96.000

  • 2024 – 2,977 uniform items gifted to families, saving c. £50,000

• There are other projects ongoing which also support the circular economy, e.g. Belfast Regional City Deal (BRCD) projects which will embed sustainable practices in their design, construction and operation.
  Specifically look at waste management in these developments, sourcing local products, re-using and recycling materials, where possible.

• The above ‘Environment’ and ‘Climate’ updates have cross-cutting themes with sustainability.

Economic Development

• The HyTech NI Project represents a collaboration between Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, Queen’s University Belfast, Ulster University and industry underpinned by £15million funding leverage from the NI Complementary Fund. 
  The Outline Business Case for the project was submitted to Invest NI in February 2025 and will be independently appraised over the coming months before a final funding decision is anticipated in late 2025.

The Universities are leading on the creation of a hydrogen technology accelerator while Council and local industry partners are developing three hydrogen demonstrators in Ballymena around the themes of mobility/transport, gas blending and skills training.

These demonstrators will serve as pathway finder projects in the transition to net zero and position the Borough as a hub for manufacturing and supports in the future hydrogen economy.

• The i4C Innovation and CleanTech Centre, funded under the Belfast Region City Deal, has now received a contract for funding for c£20.5m.
  The i4C Centre will include: Grade A office space, co-working office space, workspace/labs for short term SME rental and an innovation lab, providing hands on support for entrepreneurs and SMEs. 
  Designs for the building are progressing and Council’s Capital Projects team are working towards a BREEAM ‘excellent’ standard for the c5,200sq m building. 
  The i4C Centre will be a driver for an enhanced enterprise and innovation support ecosystem in the Mid and East Antrim Borough and will be a hub for CleanTech sector supports for Northern Ireland, aligned to the global transition to net zero. 
  The project will also be a flagship building for the St Patrick’s Barracks regeneration site located in the heart of Ballymena. 
  Officers are currently progressing the procurement exercise to secure a dedicated centre operator to manage the building and programming upon completion.

• The Hydrogen Training Academy (HTA) continued to be operational in 2024/25 with accredited training delivery being led by Northern Regional College.
  Council continues to work in partnership with NRC and other HTA partners on delivery of the OCN accredited Level 3 in Hydrogen Technologies and Applications, providing the H2 Gas Safe Lab and equipment for the H2 Fuel Cell Skills Lab to support the training delivery. 
  There have now been more than 350 trainees accredited, including 85 at Level 5 and more than 280 at Level 3. 
  A Level 5 in Green Technologies has also been developed by NRC, with the first class of 15 trainees completed in June 2025 and more cohorts planned from September 2025 onwards. 
  More than 250 organisations and 600 people have now engaged in the HTA project since November 2021.

• The MEANZ Business Project, a Fast Followers project funded as part of the Innovate UK Net Zero Living Programme, has been ongoing since July 2023 and is due to be completed in June 2025. 
  This ‘MEANZ Business’ project has supported both Council and businesses to achieve a higher level of net zero readiness and increased capacity, helping to realise organisational sustainability targets faster and support the national transition towards net zero. 

The project has included delivery of a tailored programme of information and best practice sharing, including a best practice visit to Birmingham for local SMEs, an eight part Net Zero Insights webinar series with subject experts and company case studies with more than 180 attendees to date, and a six part Net Zero Insights video series, highlighting the work which local companies are doing on their journey to net zero.

The project has also delivered on a range of Council led decarbonisation projects including a net zero skills mapping exercise internally, a data and digitalisation pilot project to help inform Council’s sustainability efforts and a bespoke renewable technologies capacity building programme for Council’s Planning Department.

A Carbon Baselining exercise has also been carried out to provide a comprehensive, data-led report on carbon emissions across the Borough, with a particular focus on key industrial sectors such as manufacturing, engineering, construction and energy.

This report provides baseline data to help inform future business support programmes delivered by Council as part of our wider integrated Economic Development strategy.

A Communication and Engagement Plan has also been developed for the HyTech NI gas blending demonstration project, to inform how best to communicate the project to residents, off-takers and stakeholders.

This plan will help to ensure effective engagement and communication throughout the project and has been informed by similar gas blending demonstration projects in Great Britain, building on lessons learned in Keele and Winlaton.

Finally, a range of industry facing decarbonsiation projects have also been supported by the MEANZ Business project, including supporting the CleanTech Collaborative Growth Network companies on their emissions reporting, carbon accounting and decarbonisation challenges and delivery of facilitated training on environmental, social and governance challenges which they are facing.

A bespoke Emissions Reporting Toolkit has also been developed and a capacity building programme delivered for local companies on Carbon Awareness and Business Sustainability Essentials, with more than 80 trainees completing training.

Biodiversity/Community

• Conservation grazing programme continues at Keeran Moss peatland as per conservation management plan.  The enables sustainable management of this important habitat and reduces the need for mechanical management. 

• Circa 40,000 trees planted on public land 2024/25.

• 1 x Green Flag community award retained for Shellinghill Park & Millennium Walk in Cullybackey.

• 3 x schools completed Schools Growing Club programme (6 sessions per school = 18, approximately 80 pupils engaged).

• Over 200 active allotment holders on our 3 allotments sites.

• Over 6000 participants attending events across the borough and throughout the year.