NI landfill rate falls below 50% for first time

The provisional data, which was published yesterday (October 24), reveals councils performance for the first quarter of 2013/14. It shows that 48.8% of local authority collected municipal waste (LACMW) was sent to landfill during that period representing the lowest quarterly rate on record as well as a six percentage point drop on the corresponding quarter in 2012/13.

Meanwhile, the recycling and composting rate for April to June 2013 has risen by over one percentage point when compared to the same quarter the previous year, from 40.9% to 42.1%. Compostable waste accounted for 47.5% of all waste collected for recycling followed by paper and card at 18.2%.

In total for the first quarter of 2013/14, 240,569 tonnes of LACMW were collected in Northern Ireland, an increase of 0.8% on the same period last year.

LACMW comprises of waste collected from households and non-household sources. Household waste represented 88% of all LACMW for the quarter.

Good news

Northern Irelands environment minister Mark Durkan welcomed the figures, in particular the fact that recycling rates have increased to their highest levels ever for the quarter.

Minister Durkan said: The increase in recycling to their highest ever spring levels is good news. It shows that as a society, we are changing our thinking and behaviour when it comes to waste. More of us are reusing resources which we would normally have simply classed as waste.

Both householders and businesses can check they are maximising their recycling opportunities by visiting www.rethinkwasteni.org funded by my Department. Another opportunity is to get involved in the European Week for Waste Reduction (16-24 November) as we all know prevention is better than a cure.

Councils

The councils are split into three waste management groups in Northern Ireland SWaMP2008, NWRWMG and arc21. Of the three groups, SWaMP2008 had the highest percentage of LACMW landfilled this quarter, at 50.6%. NWRWMG landfilled 49.6% and arc21 landfilled the lowest percentage of LAC municipal waste at 47.7%.

Arc21 also had the highest recycling and composting rate of the three waste management groups for the quarter at 43.5%. SWaMP2008 recycled and composted 43.2% of waste while NWRWMG recycled 36.4%

In terms of individual council performance, Banbridge triumphed with a recycling and composting rate of 58.3%, followed by Antrim with 57% and Magherafelt with 55.1%. The councils with the lowest recycling and composting rate for the quarter included Strabane with 29.2%, Derry with 30.3% and Coleraine with 32.6%.