Brown Bins, Kitchen Caddy and Composting

 

 

This service is on a fortnightly collection scheme, items which can go into your brown bin are as follows;

• Takeaway pizza boxes
• Cooking oil e.g. vegetable oil, olive oil
• Food waste e.g. cooked food scraps, fish, meat & bones (raw & cooked), peelings, seeds, pips and cores, mouldy foods, dairy products, bread, cakes, pastries
• Garden waste e.g. cuttings and prunings, flowers, grass cuttings, hedge trimmings, leaves, sawdust & wood chips, twigs, bark, weeds
• Other items e.g. cold ashes, shredded paper, kitchen roll, tissue paper, napkins

Items which cannot go into your brown bin include:

• Soil, rubble and stones
• Pet Waste - including cats, dogs, hamsters etc and also horse manure
• Cardboard
• Packaging of any sort
• Plastic bags
• Any material which is not green waste or food waste

Invasive non-native plants

Weeds are accepted in your brown bin but invasive non-native plants such as Japanese Knotweed and Giant Hogweed are not permitted by law.

• DO NOT put any part of it in your brown bin, landfill bin or compost bin
• DO NOT take it to a tip, recycling centre or waste transfer station
• DO NOT dump or fly-tip cuttings

Find out how to control and dispose of invasive non-native plants.

Ordering a new brown bin

If you would like to order a new bin please log onto Council Direct (Request for Service) or contact Waste Helpdesk on T: 0300 124 5000 (Option 0) or email: waste.helpdesk@midandeastantrim.gov.uk.

Kitchen Food Caddy

Food waste e.g. bread, cooked food scraps, dairy products, egg shells, fish, meat & bones (raw & cooked), pastries, peelings, seeds, pips, cores, raw food scraps, tea bags, coffee grounds

Please place any of the above food waste items into your lined kitchen caddy.

Once full, please tie the bag and pop into your brown bin outside.

The biodegradable and compostable green caddy liner will be provided for free to householders twice a year in both April and October.

Residents will be notified through our social media channels when the green caddy liners are being distributed.

If householders do not receive their roll of green caddy liners, please notify the Waste Helpdesk on E: waste.helpdesk@midandeastantrim.gov.uk or T: 0300 124 5000 and select option 0.

If you require additional bags, you can purchase them from our premises or from your local supermarket.

• Larne: Market Yard, Station Road.
• Ballymena: The Braid and Seven Towers Leisure Centre
• Carrickfergus: Town Hall, Cash Desk

Home Composting

Home Composters can be purchased from us at a cost of £5.51.

They are 220L beehive shaped composting bins.

Payment can be made over the phone 0300 124 5000 (Cashdesk) or online using Council.Direct.

Compost bins are now delivery only, and will be delivered as soon as possible to the homeowner.

What can I put in the compost bin?

Like any recipe, your compost relies on the right ingredients to make it work.

Good things you can compost include vegetable peelings, fruit waste, teabags, plant prunings and grass cuttings.

These are considered “Greens”.

Greens are quick to rot and they provide important nitrogen and moisture.

Other things you can compost include cardboard egg boxes, scrunched up paper and fallen leaves.

These are considered “Browns” and are slower to rot.

They provide fibre and carbon and also allow important air pockets to form in the mixture.

Crushed eggshells can be included to add useful minerals.

Yes	No
Vegetable Peelings / Egg Shells / Cooked Vegetables / Bread / Meat Scraps / Bones	Materials Infected with Persistant Diseases e.g. Potato Blight
Fruit Scraps	Pernicious Weeds e.g. Bind Weed / Weeds with Seed heads
Tea bags/leaves & Coffee Grounds	Large Unchopped Woody Branches
Grass Cuttings	Cat, Dog or Rabbit Litter or Horse Manure
Finely Chopped or Shredded Shrub Prunnings	Japanese knotweed
Most Garden Weeds
Straw and Hay

 

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