Northern Ireland’s household waste preparing for reuse, dry recycling and composting rate has reached 50% for the period between April and June 2017, an increase on the 46.4% recorded during the same three months of 2016.
At council level, rates varied from 43.2% in Derry City & Strabane to 58.3% in Mid Ulster.
Northern Ireland’s councils collected 263,167 tonnes of municipal waste between April and June 2017, similar to the 262,883 tonnes collected during the same three months of 2016.
Household waste accounts for 89.2% of total municipal waste collected by local authorities. Newry, Mourne & Down generated the smallest quantity of household waste per person at 111kg, whilst the largest quantity per person was recorded in Antrim & Newtownabbey at 147kg.
The municipal waste energy recovery rate was 17.6%, an increase of 1.6 percentage points on the April to June 2016 rate of 16%. The highest rate was recorded in Newry, Mourne & Down at 45.7% and the lowest was 3.1% in Fermanagh & Omagh.
“I am delighted to see this improvement in recycling rates in the latest Northern Ireland recycling statistics and I am grateful to local Councils and especially to householders for their continued efforts.”
The latest quarterly landfill rate for household waste was 32.2%, a further reduction on the 37% recorded during the same three months of 2016. There were 43,136 tonnes of BLACMW sent to landfill between April and June 2017.
This was 17.7% lower than the 52,400 tonnes sent between the same three months of 2016. It also accounted for a smaller proportion of the annual allowance, 17.4% between April and June 2017 compared to 19.9% in the equivalent quarter of 2016.
Philip McMurray, head of recycling policy in DAERA, said: “I am delighted to see this improvement in recycling rates in the latest Northern Ireland recycling statistics and I am grateful to local Councils and especially to householders for their continued efforts.
“However, we cannot be complacent. Recycling your food waste can seem strange at first but for most people it soon becomes second nature. And yet such a simple change can make a huge difference. Keeping food waste out of landfill not only helps prevent climate change, but the waste can be turned into a valuable resource for our parks and allotments and the process has already created jobs.”
Mr McMurray was speaking at an event at Fairview Primary in Ballyclare (pictured) where pupils demonstrated what they have learned about recycling food waste.
The children were keen to highlight that recycling is important all year round, but especially at Halloween when we have extra foodstuffs around. DAERA remains determined to continue supporting councils in their drive to expand food waste recycling to all households across Northern Ireland all year round.
Mr McMurray added: “Christmas is just around the corner so Halloween makes a good time to practice your food waste recycling habits. Of course, don’t be fooled by the name ‘food waste’.
“Yes, you should recycle left overs, plate scrapings, tea-bags etc but you can also recycle all the bits that you wouldn’t normally eat – meat, chicken and fish bones, peelings, cores, stalks and seeds and when you’ve finished with your Halloween pumpkin or turnip and it looks a bit tired and sad put it in your food waste recycling.
“And remember just because food has gone off – sometimes there really is too much at Halloween and Christmas – it’s still OK to recycle it, just make sure to remove any packaging first.”
