Local authorities (LAs) in Northern Ireland sent seven per cent less waste to landfill and recycled three per cent more in the third quarter (Q3) of 2013/14 than they did in the same period the year before.

According to the provisional ‘Northern Ireland Local Authority Collected (LAC) Municipal Waste Management Statistics October – December 2013’, published today (24 April), LAs sent just over half (50.4 per cent) of the 217,265 tonnes of LAC waste to landfill – a reduction of seven per cent on the same period in 2012 (57.6 per cent) and the lowest recorded figure for the autumn period.

Whilst the amount of waste sent to landfill decreased (despite LAC waste arisings holding near 2012/13 rates – 216,987 tonnes), the rates of recycling and composting increased by three percentage points, from 35.8 per cent to 38.7 per cent. This waslargely driven by an increase in composting, which rose by 2.3 per cent on Q3 2012/13 figures.

Further, LAs sent 14 per cent less biodegradable LAC municipal waste to landfill in Q3 2013/14 than in 2012/13 (63,716 tonnes), equating to 20.8 per cent of the annual allocation. This brings the total allocation for April to December 2013 to 61.4 per cent.

Household waste figures

Household recycling rates increased by the same amount, with LAs recycling or composting 39.2 per cent of waste collected from residents (22.8 per cent recycled and 16.4 per cent composted).

The highest capture rates for ‘primary waste categories’ (glass; paper and card; mixed metals; mixed plastics; organics/compostables; and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)) collected from householders was paper and card (55.4 per cent), with the lowest being WEEE (only 1.2 per cent of available WEEE was collected by LAs ).

The capture rates for glass and organic/compostable waste saw ‘notable improvements’ when compared with the same quarter of the previous year, rising by 6.5 and 5.5 per cent respectively to 38.0 per cent and roughly 37 per cent.

Exactly half of all household waste was sent to landfill, an improvement of seven per cent on 2012 /13 figures.

However, despite LAC municipal waste arisings remaining similar to Q3 2012/13, the make-up of the LAC waste changed: the household element (192,835 tonnes) increased by one per cent in 2013, while the non-household element dropped by six per cent (to 24,430 tonnes).

‘Making more use of what must be viewed as resources and not waste’

Commenting on the figures published today, Environment Minister Mark H Durkan said: “The continued decrease in landfilled waste is important. Together with the continued increase in the recycling and composting rate, this shows that as a society we are making more use of what must be viewed as resources and not waste.”

“Along with the support of my department, more councils are expanding the range of materials that are collected at the kerbside for recycling and as a result, a kerbside collection of food waste for composting is now available to almost 70 per cent of households.

“I commend the public for the continuing effort they put into recycling and encourage people to check their council’s website or try Rethink Waste for more information on what they can do to reduce, reuse and recycle.”

The data in this report are based on provisional returns made to WasteDataFlow, the web system used by all UK local authorities to report LAC municipal waste.

An annual report, with fully validated figures for 2013/14, will be published on 27 November 2014.

Read the ‘Northern Ireland Local Authority Collected Municipal Waste Management Statistics Report’.