Councils Send Less Waste To Landfill Statistics Show

The provisional Northern Ireland Local Authority Collected Municipal Waste Management Statistics October - December 2011 have been published today.

The report shows a continuing decrease in the amount of local authority collected municipal waste sent to landfill in Northern Ireland. In October to December 2011, there were 134,206 tonnes sent to landfill, resulting in a landfill rate of 61%. This was a six percentage point improvement on the 67% rate recorded for the same period last year.

The report also provides additional information on local authority collected and household waste arisings, recycling, composting and landfill. The data in this report come from returns made to WasteDataFlow by district councils in Northern Ireland at the end of each quarter. WasteDataFlow is a web based system used by all UK local authorities to report local authority collected municipal waste.

The Landfill Allowance Scheme (NI) Regulations 2004 (as amended) place a statutory responsibility on district councils, in each scheme year, to landfill no more than the quantity of biodegradable local authority collected municipal waste for which they have allowances. In the first three quarters of the 2011/12 financial year just less than half of the annual allowance of biodegradable local authority collected municipal waste that can be sent to landfill was used. This was an improvement on the 56% of the (larger) allowance used in the first three quarters of 2010/11.


Key points for October to December 2011 are:

Local Authority Collected Municipal Waste

•A total of 218,751 tonnes of local authority collected municipal waste were collected in Northern Ireland, a decrease of just over 1% on the same period last year. Of all local authority collected municipal waste in Northern Ireland, 88% was household waste and 12% was non-household waste.

•Just over 61% of local authority collected municipal waste was sent to landfill. This is an improvement compared to the same period last year when just less than 67% was sent to landfill.

•The percentage of local authority collected municipal waste sent for recycling and composting was just less than 35%. This was also an improvement compared to the same period last year, when 31% was recycled or composted.

•Green waste accounted for more than a third (37%), which together with paper (26%) and other recycled waste (23%), accounted for the majority of material collected for recycling. The remaining 13% was accounted for by glass, electrical goods and cans.

Household Waste

•A total of 192,676 tonnes of household waste were collected in Northern Ireland, a decrease of just over 1% on the same period last year.

•The percentage of household waste sent to landfill was just over 60%. As with local authority collected municipal waste this was an improvement on the October to December 2010 rate of just over 65%.

•Almost 36% of household was waste sent for recycling and composting, an improvement on the rate of just under 33% from the corresponding quarter last year. Of all household waste collected 22% was recycled and just less than 14% was composted.

•Whilst 107 kg of household waste arisings was generated per person in Northern Ireland, the amount varied across the three waste management groups. NWRWMG had the highest household waste arisings per person at 109 kg, arc21 was the next highest with 108 kg and SWaMP2008 produced the lowest amount per person at 104 kg.

(CD)