‘I don’t need a brown bin, I have a dog’

Dog owners should use their pets for the disposal of food waste rather than putting it into brown bins, a member of Derry City and Strabane District Council has said..

Ulster Unionist Cllr Derek Hussey made the comments at a council meeting during a discussion on how to improve recycling rates across the district by making Derry and Strabane a ‘zero waste’ district.

The meeting of the council’s Environment and Regeneration Committee saw representatives from Zero Waste North West seek council backing for a feasibility study into a zero waste strategy for the council district.

Judy Logue, from the group, said Environment Minister, Mark H Durkan, had allocated £20,000 to the study, which she said would cost a total of £44,000 to undertake.

Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Hussey said he supported the idea of zero waste but said he had concerns over the costs and whether or not that would fall to the ratepayer. He added there were other methods of recycling available to the public and suggested an alternative to the brown bin scheme being rolled out by council for the purpose of disposing food waste.

“Why do we wrap a banana?” he said.

“I also fail to understand the need for brown bins. I have a dog, so if the dog doesn’t eat it, I also have birds.”