Northern Irish recycling rate rises by just 0.75%

I have made it clear that I want to see more progress against the existing targets

 
Edwin Poots

Provisional figures released last Thursday (July 15) by the country's Department for Environment (DOE) showed that Northern Ireland achieved a 30.8% household waste recycling and composting rate for the fourth quarter of 2009/10 (January-March 2010), which is an increase of 0.2% on the 2008/09 figure of 30.6% for the same period.

And, this was matched by a very slight increase in the municipal waste recycling and composting rate, which rose from 28.9% in the fourth quarter of 2008/09 to 29% in the fourth quarter of 2009/10.

When collated with the three previous quarters, the household waste figures mean that Northern Ireland looks set to post a 35.15% household waste recycling and composting rate for the financial year, compared to 34.4% for 2008/09 – an increase of just 0.75%.

This would indicate that the country has reached its target of recycling and composting 35% of household waste by the end of 2010. However, it also shows a continuing slowdown in the country's year-on-year recycling and composting performance.

The 0.75% increase in household waste recycling and composting rates between 2008/09 and 2009/10 comes in the wake of a 2.5% rise between 2007/08 (31.9%) and 2008/09 (34.4%), and a 4.2% increase between 2006/07 (31.9%) and 2007/08.

This coincided with a slowdown also seen in the municipal waste recycling rate, which rose from by 1.1% from 31.6% in 2008/09 to 32.7% in 2009/10. This comes after it rose by 3.3% between 2006/07 (25.5%) and 2007/08 (28.8%) and then by 2.8% between 2007/08 and 2008/09.

This is also the second successive quarterly data set published by the DOE to indicate a slowing of recycling performance, with third quarter (October to December 2009) data published in April 2010 also showing that the rate of increase had risen less than between earlier quarters (see letsrecycle.com story).

Defending the performance, environment minister Edwin Poots said: “It is important to understand how far Northern Ireland has come in recycling waste over recent years. For example, [this] statistical press release stated very clearly that Northern Ireland was performing well above the required standard in only landfilling some 21% of its permitted allocation in terms of biodegradable municipal waste.”

Slowdown

Mr Poots pointed to efforts that the country is making to improve the country's recycling performance, such as the £3.13 million ‘Rethink Waste' fund launched earlier this year to promote recycling and reuse (see letsrecycle.com story).

He said: “There is always scope for improvement, and I have made it clear that I want to see more progress against the existing targets and more challenging targets in the future. With this in mind, in May I announced a £3.13 million Rethink Waste Fund to develop recycling infrastructure.

“This, along with a wider package of measures, including communications to engage with people on the importance of recycling, will continue the trend towards waste being seen as a valuable resource rather than as a problem to be buried in the ground,” he added.