The DoE and the EHS were heavily criticised last week by the Waste Management Advisory Board for Northern Ireland, a group of cross-sector advisors appointed to look into the administration's implementation of its waste strategy published in March 2000.
The Board said that the DoE had made satisfactory progress on only 16 of its 107 targets, warned there was a lack of leadership and an insufficient waste management infrastructure to meet Landfill Directive targets (see letsrecycle.com story).
Responding to the report, the chief executive of the Department of Environment's Environment and Heritage Service, Richard Rogers, said that the Board's recommendations would be considered and acted on.
He said: “The minister and department will consider the Board's recommendations very carefully. I can assure the Board that producing an effective Strategy, following this advice, is a high priority for us.
“The improvement of waste management is one of the biggest challenges which we face in Northern Ireland,” he added.
Northern Ireland has been split into three waste management groups who are producing plans to lay out the way forward with waste. The plans have undergone public consultations and are now being finalised.
The targets Northern Ireland have been set include recovering 25% of household waste by 2005 and 40% by 2010 – of which 25% should be by recycling or composting. At the moment, Northern Ireland recycles about 6% of its household waste, with the remainder going to landfill.
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