Northern Ireland’s recycling rate continues to rise as new figures show household waste preparing for reuse, dry recycling and composting rate was 47.7% between October and December 2018.
This is an increase on the 46.9% recorded during the same three months of 2017. At council level, rates varied from 41.7% in Belfast to 56.3% in Mid Ulster.
Northern Ireland’s councils collected 230,942 tonnes of LAC municipal waste between October and December 2018, similar to the 232,012 tonnes collected during the same three months of 2017.
Household waste accounted for 89.6% of total LAC municipal waste. Newry, Mourne & Down produced the smallest quantity of household waste per capita at 98kg, whilst the largest quantity per capita was recorded in Antrim & Newtownabbey at 133kg.
The LAC municipal waste energy recovery rate was 19.4%, an increase on the 17.6% reported for October to December 2017. The highest rate was recorded in Newry, Mourne & Down at 47.4% and the lowest was 5.0% in Ards & North Down.
The latest quarterly landfill rate for household waste is 30.1%, a further reduction on the 32.5% recorded during the same three months of 2017.
There were 39,045 tonnes of biodegradable local authority collected municipal waste (BLACMW) sent to landfill between October and December 2018. This was 9.9% lower than the 43,315 tonnes sent between the same three months of 2017, and accounted for a smaller proportion of the permitted annual allowance allocated to councils for sending BLACMW to landfill, 16.7% between October and December 2018 compared to 17.4% in the equivalent quarter of 2017.