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 | | Wednesday, 27 February, 2002, 11:03 GMT Scottish dump for NI waste  The rubbish is transported across the Irish Sea A Northern Ireland council has taken the unusual step of exporting its residential and commercial waste across the Irish Sea. Ballymena Borough Council's bins are being emptied at a landfill site in Cairnryan, following the decision by contractors to dispose of the waste in Scotland. The council recently signed a contract with Tyrone Waste Haulage, a Cookstown-based company to dispose of the 800 tonnes of rubbish from their borough every week. It is understood that Ballymena Council could be the only council in the province to export its waste.
Household and commercial rubbish is currently being loaded into 40ft containers every week and put on the boat to Larne from where it is transported to a landfill site. The rubbish is being taken out of Ballymena because their own landfill site is nearly full and the government has put a freeze on the council developing another landfill site. According to Alex Kinghorn, the council's chief environmental health officer, the tender, which was signed last November, was based on the understanding that the majority of their waste would go to a landfill site in the Ballyclare area. However, Mr Kinghorn said problems arose with the Tyrone firm's arrangements at Ballyclare and also with a secondary disposal site a Cookstown landfill. He said it had emerged in recent weeks that the private firm taking Ballymena's rubbish away was sending it to Scotland. The manner in which the firm disposed of the rubbish was their business as long as it did not affect the price of the councils' contract, according to Mr Kinghorn. | | See also:  Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Northern Ireland stories now:  Links to more Northern Ireland stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||
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