Provisional 37.5% recycling rate for Northern Ireland

The Department revealed today (August 2) that the country achievedanunaudited35.4% municipal waste recycling rate in 2010/11 and a 37.5% household waste recycling rate.

And, while this represents a rise of 2.3 and 1.9 percentage points respectively when compared to audited figures for 2009/10, it is markedly lower than the 43.6% municipal waste recycling rate achieved in Wales over the same period (see letsrecycle.com story).

Northern Irelands performance also appears to lag behind that of England, which, while still to report data for 2010/11, recorded a 40.3% household waste recycling rate the year ending September 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story) .

The unaudited Northern Irishfigures emerged after the countrys department for Environment published a Northern Ireland Municipal Waste Management Statistics report late last month (July 21) covering the fourth quarter of 2010/11 (January-March). This showed that 34.4% of household waste was recycled or composted during the period.

When combined with what the country achieved in the preceding three quarters, this was then used by the department to calculate the countrys provisional performance over the whole year (see table).

The provisional household and municipal waste recycling rates for the year were divulged by a spokesman for Northern Irelands department of environment.

But, he was keen to stress that the numbers were as yet unaudited and final figures would not be published until December 2011.

He told letsrecycle.com: These provisional estimates use data which are not yet fully validated i.e. the source data from some councils are still subject to audit and the annual dataset as a whole still has to be examined for consistency. Once this is completed an annual report with fully validated figures for all key performance indicators for 2010/11 will be published in December 2011.

Quarterly

Key trends in the quarterly data report include a 3.3 percentage point rise in the household waste recycling rate compared to the same period the year before and a 5.6% decrease in the amount of waste being landfilled.

Northern Irelands environment minister Alex Attwood welcomed the progress that the country was making.

But, he said he was disappointed to see that the amount of municipal waste produced in Northern Ireland in January-March 2011 had increased by 2.6% compared to the same period last year.

He said: This demonstrates that we cannot be complacent. Recycling is one of the many ways that we can make our local area a better place to live and invest and I will be pushing to make Northern Ireland the leader of recycling on these Islands.

Belfast

The Northern Irish figures emerged as resource advisors took to the streets of Belfast to encourage every home in the city with a blue or brown kerbside bin to recycle more. At present 70,000 homes in Belfast have a blue bin for dry recyclables and 60,000 also have a brown recycling bin for food and garden waste.

Belfast says it costs 84 per tonne to dispose ofresidual wastebut only 8 a tonne to recycle material from the blue bins.

The citys recycling rate is currently 30% but the council estimates that 70% of waste could be recycled. Last year, only half the households (30,000) with access to our food waste collection service (brown bins) actually used it. While the council still saved 52,000 in disposal costs, it claims that it could save at least 105,000 a year if everyone participated.

The council is particularly keen to improve its performance to help meet the 50% recycling target which member states are required to meet under the revised Waste Framework Directive by 2020.

In a notice to residents, the council said: The aim of this campaign is to help you get the most out of your recycling bins and reduce the pressure on your black landfill bin.