Councils in Northern Ireland have further reduced the amount of waste sent to landfill, according to the latest provisional figures published by the Department of Environment (DoE).
Between October and December 2012 Northern Irish councils sent 57.7% of municipal waste sent to landfill, a 3.6 percentage point reduction on the same period in 2011. And, the amount of local authority collected municipal waste sent for recycling and composting increased by 1.3 percentage points over the same period, from 34.6% in 2011 to 36% in 2012.
A similar improvement was also seen in household waste over the period with 57% sent to landfill, down from 60% the year before. Additionally, 36.6% of household waste was recycled or composted between October and December 2012, an increase of 0.8 percentage points from the same period in 2011. Household waste accounts for almost 87% of all local authority collected municipal waste (LACMW) in Northern Ireland.
The figures were published on Thursday (April 25) as part of a quarterly report entitled Northern Ireland Local Authority Collected Municipal Waste Management Statistics October to December 2012.
Other key points highlighted by the report include:
- Almost a 1% decrease on the total amount of local authority collected municipal waste collected from the same period the year before, equating to 216,713;
- Compostable waste accounted for over a third of all LACMW collected for recycling at 34.7%, with paper and care accounting for 24.1%;
- A total of 75,046 tonnes of biodegradable local authority collected municipal waste were sent to landfill, which equates to over 23% of the annual allocation, a reduction of 4.3% on the tonnage sent to landfill in the same quarter last year.
Win-win
The figures have been welcomed by Northern Irelands environment minister Alex Attwood who said further improvement can be made by setting higher recycling targets.
Mr Attwood said: The continual decrease, not only in the amount being landfilled but also by the amount of waste being produced by householders, is encouraging. Small changes to our lifestyles can offer significant long term savings, such as the landfill tax that ratepayers fund, whilst at the same time reducing the impact on the environment. This win-win situation can be improved further by setting ourselves higher recycling targets to make more use of our resources and open up new business opportunities.
‘The continual decrease, not only in the amount being landfilled but also by the amount of waste being produced by householders, is encouraging.’
Alex Attwood, Environment Minister, Northern Ireland
As Environment Minister I am implementing bold challenging new laws to enhance our clean and green credentials. People want to embrace measures to reduce waste and address climate change. The carrier bag levy, recycling and less waste to landfill drive it.
Councils
Northern Ireland is split into three waste management regions – arc21, North West Regional Waste Management Group (NWRWMG) and Southern Waste Management Partnership (SWAMP2008). Of the three, arc21 which represents 11 councils in the east of the country – had the highest percentage of waste landfilled in the quarter with 61.7% of municipal waste being disposed of at landfill. NWRWMG consisting of seven councils – landfilled 52.9% of municipal waste and SWAMP2008 52.7%.
SWAMP2008 which represents nine councils had the highest overall recycling and composting rate for the quarter at 39.8%. This was followed by arc21 with a 34.8% recycling rate and NWRWMG with 34.1%.
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