Residents of Mullingar will soon have the opportunity to recycle kitchen and garden waste from their own homes, with the roll-out of the brown bin services in the coming weeks.
From July 1, all waste collection companies operating within the town boundaries of Athlone and Mullingar will be obliged to provide a brown bin service to all homes.
The service will be extended to the towns of Moate, Kilbeggan, and Kinnegad by January 1 2011. It is also hoped that individual waste companies may decide to extend the service to rural areas outside of these towns.
“We would encourage waste companies that if they want to provide the bins in rural areas, all the better,” said Hugh O’Reilly, senior executive officer of Westmeath’s environment section.
“To reach EU targets, 60 per cent of the population of Ireland needs to have the service. If we include all the towns with populations of over 1,500, this target will be met.”
The brown ‘composting’ bins will be collected every two weeks, and will allow for the separation of organic kitchen and garden waste, including leaves, weeds, fruit, vegetables, meat, and dairy products.
It is expected their introduction will greatly reduce the amount of waste going to landfill from green household bins, allowing organic waste to instead be recycled.
