Included in the plan are 13 actions designed to assist and check on NI’s progress on “the road to zero waste”, such as holding a stakeholder forum on waste prevention by December 2014 and continuing to support projects through its Zero Waste Fund.
The document, dated September 30 2013, comes nearly nine months after the European Union’s stated deadline for Member States to have a Waste Prevention mandate in place.
The Northern Ireland Department of Environment held a consultation on a draft version of the Programme which closed on December 11 2013. However, the EU Waste Framework Directive requires each Member State to have had its own final waste prevention mandates published by a deadline of December 12 2013.
According to DOENI, publication of the Programme was delayed to “allow a fundamental and strategic review of waste issues” in NI after the discovery of “significant” amounts of illegal waste at a site in Campsie, which led to the publication of an independent waste crime report by ex-Welsh Environment Agency director Chris Mills (see letsrecycle.com story).
The Waste Prevention Programme (WPP) was then finalised over summer 2014 in order to take into account recommendations in the Mills report and the Department of Environment’s subsequent response in April 2014.
Actions
The WPP brings together a number of initiatives and actions currently being carried out in NI on waste prevention, including the Zero Waste Fund, which last year granted 10 projects a total of £1.37 million.
The WPP states that this year’s fund, due to run until March 2015, is likely to be extended to “at least” March 31 2016.
The Department also plans to extend the 5p levy on single-use carrier bags, first implemented in April 2013, to include all new carrier bags with a retail price of less than 20 pence from January 2015. The introduction of the levy last year coincided with a 71% fall in the number of such bags used at supermarkets between 2012 and 2013 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Another action put forward is to launch a new Rethink Waste communications campaign to focus in particular on encouraging residents and businesses to cut food waste, which is considered a “priority waste stream to tackle”.
The document also highlights the Department’s continued support of initiatives such as the European Week of Waste Reduction, the Eco-Schools education programme, and its work to develop a re-use and repair network throughout Northern Ireland.
With regards to the construction and industrial sector, the WPP states that the Department will work with partners and stakeholders to develop a new voluntary agreement to halving waste to landfill.
In addition, DOENI says it will “periodically review the effectiveness of voluntary environmental schemes within the construction sector in determining whether to consider statutory instruments in future”.
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Building on NI’s waste management strategy – ‘Delivering Resource Efficiency’ – published in October 2013, the WPP states that progress on its actions will be measured through data on household waste arisings. And, commercial and industrial as well as construction and demolition waste will also be monitored once “more reliable data becomes available”.
According DOENI: “The Programme is designed to have a favourable impact on the Northern Ireland economy, helping to promote and support ‘green jobs’, and for the protection of the environment and conservation of resources.”
Delay
A DOENI spokesman for said: “The NI Waste Prevention Plan was delayed to allow a fundamental and strategic review of waste issues in Northern Ireland to be undertaken. The review was requested following the discovery of significant amounts of illegal waste at a site in Campsie.
“The Departmental response to the Mills Report was published in April 2014. Following consideration of the Report recommendations, the Departmental response and Action Plan to implement the commitments given by the Minister, the WPP was finalised and cleared over the summer months for publication in September 2014.”
The spokesman added: “No notification has been received from the European Commission in respect of the delayed publication of the Waste Prevention Programme for Northern Ireland. The Department of the Environment has kept Defra (the UK authority for making notifications to the Commission) informed of the reasons for the delay.”
Figures for last year showed that recycling rates in Northern Ireland remained relatively flat, but the amount of waste collected by councils Northern Ireland fell by 3.8% in 2012/13 to 900,000 tonnes (see letsrecycle.com story).
Waste prevention
The publication of NI’s Programme follows that of the Scottish Government’s Zero Waste Plan in October 2013 (see letsrecycle.com story).
The Welsh Government’s Waste Prevention Programme in (see letsrecycle.com story) and the UK government’s Programme in (see letsrecycle.com story) were then both published separately in December 2013.
Related Links:
Department of the Environment Northern Ireland
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