Provisional Northern Ireland local authority collected municipal waste management statistics for January to March have been published, showing the country’s recycling rate has increased from 39.7% to 43.6% for this period.
Northern Ireland’s councils collected 222,481 tonnes of local authority collected (LAC) municipal waste between January and March 2018, 2.1% lower than the 227,153 tonnes collected during the same three months of 2017. Household waste accounts for 89.3% of total LAC municipal waste.
Newry, Mourne & Down had the smallest quantity of household waste per person at 100kg, whilst the largest quantity per person was recorded in Antrim & Newtownabbey at 123kg.
The household waste preparing for reuse, dry recycling and composting rate was 43.6% between January and March 2018, an increase on the 39.7% recorded during the same three months of 2017.
At council level, rates varied from 36.1% in Causeway Coast & Glens to 48.8% in Antrim & Newtownabbey.
The LAC municipal waste energy recovery rate was 20.1%, lower than the 20.7% reported for January to March 2017. The highest rate was recorded in Newry, Mourne & Down at 52.1% and the lowest was 6.1% in Ards & North Down.
The latest quarterly landfill rate for household waste was 33.8%, a further reduction on the 39.1% recorded during the same three months of 2017. There were 46,273 tonnes of biodegradable local authority collected municipal waste sent to landfill between January and March 2018. This was 15.3% lower than the 54,617 tonnes sent between the same three months of 2017.
It also accounted for a smaller proportion of the annual allowance, 18.6% between January and March 2018 compared to 20.8% in the equivalent quarter of 2017.