There has been a continued reduction in the amount of municipal waste being sent to landfill in Northern Ireland, according to a new report published by the Department of the Environment (DOE) Northern Ireland.
The quarterly report, ‘Northern Ireland Local Authority Collected Municipal Waste Management Statistics, July-September 2012’, released yesterday (24 January), shows that between July and September 2012 the ‘proportion of municipal waste sent to landfill’ fell 3.3 per cent, to 51.1 per cent, when compared to the same period in 2011.
Additionally, it was found that household recycling and composting rates had risen 1.5 per cent to 44.2 per cent and that the overall amount of waste collected fell from 220,890 tonnes to 219,673 tonnes (0.6 per cent).
Other findings detailed in the report include:
- Local authority collected municipal waste dropped by one per cent to 247,979 tonnes;
- The amount of municipal waste sent for recycling and composting increased by nearly two per cent to 43 per cent;
- The proportion of municipal waste sent to landfill decreased from 56 per cent to 52 per cent.
- Around 69,000 tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste was sent to landfill – 22 per cent of the annual allocation of 320,000 tonnes.
Waste management services in Ireland are provided by three waste management groups which each administer distinct areas. Of the groups, it was found that arc21 landfilled the highest proportion of local authority collected municipal waste (54.2 per cent), with NWRWMG coming a close second (53.7 per cent) and SWaMP2008 landfilling the lowest proportion (47.2 per cent).
Commenting on the latest figures DOE Minister Alex Attwood said: “Once again I am encouraged by Councils and the majority of householders for their combined efforts in recycling as much of our waste as possible. It is especially heartening to see increases in the composting of biodegradable waste as, if landfilled, this has a high environmental impact. Furthermore, by cutting down on waste going to landfill Councils are not only reducing their environmental footprint but also landfill tax costs.
“The recycling gains we have made in the last few years should give us confidence that we can make a difference to our shared environment. At the same time we need to ensure we continue to stretch ourselves which is one of the reasons behind my proposed statutory 60 per cent municipal recycling target for 2020.”
The data that forms the basis of this report is provided by returns made to WasteDataFlow, a web based system used by local authorities across the UK to report LAC municipal waste statistics.
Find out more about residual waste rates across the UK in Resource 69.
Read the ‘Northern Ireland Local Authority Collected Municipal Waste Management Statistics, July-September 2012’ report.
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