Northern Ireland consults on draft waste strategy

And, the DOE said it would consult on legislation to introduce a ban on separately collected food waste being sent to landfill. It added that it would also investigate the potential to take control of landfill tax by September 2014 as well as introducing a statutory requirement on waste operators to report specified data on commercial and industrial (C&I) waste.

The proposals were outlined in a draft document of the revised Northern Ireland waste management strategy, entitled Delivering Resource Efficiency, which was launched for consultation late last month (October 26) to little fanfare. It stresses that many of the proposals will be subject to individual consultations over the next couple of years.

In the document, the Department of Environment (DOE) noted a shift from the countrys previous waste strategy, which was published in 2006, from resource management to resource efficiency. Unlike the previous strategy, the revised one is not time-bounded.

The draft revised strategy adheres to many of the targets set under European legislation, such as the revised Waste Framework Directive (WFD). This includes achieving a 50% recycling rate by 2020. The NI Government has already committed to achieving an interim target of recycling 45% of household waste by 2015. In addition, earlier this year Northern Irelands Environment Minister Alex Attwood announced plans to go beyond the targets in the WFD by introducing a statutory recycling rate of 60% for all local authority collected municipal waste by 2020 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Landfill

The NI government is also taking action to reduce the amount of food waste sent to landfill. It is proposing to introduce an obligation for district councils to provide receptacles for the separate collection of food waste from households. In addition, it plans to ban separately collected food waste from being sent to landfill and introduce a requirement which will see all food waste producers forced to segregate food waste.

In the strategy, the Government outlines its reasons for proposing to implement the ban. It states: Reduced food waste can contribute to improving resource efficiency and food security at a global level, and would contribute to a reduction in GHG emissions resulting from their disposal in landfill.

In a bid to increase the amount of C&I waste recycled and diverted from landfill, the NI government is proposing to increase a statutory requirement on waste operators to provide specified data on the waste by December 2013. At present, waste operators are required to provide information on the waste that they handle, but there is no specific statutory requirement on them to provide a level of detail that would allow Northern Ireland to obtain comprehensive data on the amount of C&I waste arising and recycled. Accurate monitoring of the data would allow Northern Ireland to set a recycling target specifically for C&I waste.

Tax

The NI Government also announced that it would look at the potential for devolving landfill tax, in a move similar to that of the Scottish Government (see letsrecycle.com story).

It states: The Department will explore with the DFP the potential to argue for Landfill Tax to be devolved, whereby the NI Executive would have the power to set a rate of Landfill Tax appropriate to local circumstances and should provide a more transparent link between the revenues raised and the funding of environmental projects.

Targets

Other targets proposed for Northern Ireland include:

• To develop a waste prevention programme by December 2013 (in line with the WFD);
• To achieve an overall packaging recovery rate of 79% and a recycling rate of 72.7% by 2017 (in line with UK targets);
• To achieve the recovery and recycling targets for electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) as set out by the WEEE Directive;
• To reduce the consumption of single use carrier bags by at least 80% within the first year of implementing a 5 pence levy for single use carrier bags, which will rise to 10 pence by April 2014 (see letsrecycle.com story).

With regards to the separate collection of recyclables, Northern Ireland adhered closely to the WFD. The DOE said that waste collectors have to ensure the separate collection of at least paper, metal, plastic and glass by 2015. It added that it is acceptable for these to be collected commingled providing it does not compromise the quality or quantity of the individual waste streams.