Local authorities (LAs) in Northern Ireland experienced a drop in recycling rates last year, despite a fall in landfilling, due to an increase in municipal waste arisings.

According to the provisional ‘Northern Ireland Local Authority Collected (LAC) Municipal Waste Management Statistics – October to December 2014’ published today (23 April), LAs recycled and composted 38.2 per cent of municipal waste in the autumn, 0.3 per cent less than in the same quarter the year before.

The Department of Environment (DOE) has stated that the ‘slight decrease’ in the rate can be explained by the fact that the combined dry recycling and composting tonnage, which itself increased, did not keep pace with the increase in waste arisings.

Proportion of waste recycled falls

Overall, the dry recycling rate increased slightly (by 3,296 tonnes) from 23.8 per cent to 24.1 per cent, while the composting rate dropped from 14.6 per cent to 14.0 per cent.

Notably, however, the dry recycling rate in the North West Region Waste Management Group (NWRWMG) partnership had the greatest change in recycling/composting since last year, with figures dropping by almost three per cent to 34.9 per cent. This marked a similar trend for the previous quarter’s statistics, which showed that the recycling rate had dropped by 2.9 per cent (two per cent of which was due to lower levels of dry recycling).

DOE states that although there was no change in the tonnage sent for composting in the NWRWMG councils, ‘due to a decrease in dry recycling and increase in arisings the combined recycling and composting rate [for household waste alone] fell by 2.7 percentage points’.

Resource has contacted NWRWMG for a statement on why recycling levels have been falling across the seven partner councils, but has not yet received a response.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Southern Waste Management Partnership (SWaMP2008) sent a greater proportion of its arisings for dry recycling and composting, with figures rising by 1.6 per cent to 40.9 per cent. For household waste, the group’s recycling/composting rate improved by 2.1 per centage to 41.6 per cent – largely driven by an increase of 1.9 percentage points in the dry recycling rate.

The next highest rate was 37.9 per cent in the 11 councils of arc21, down 0.4 per cent due to a fall in the amount of waste composted (despite dry recycling figures rising). The figures show that the increase in household waste dry recycling was offset by a decrease in composting, and although the ‘net effect would have been almost zero’, household waste arisings have increased, causing a ‘small decrease’ in the recycling and composting rate.

Waste arisings have risen for the past seven quarters

Increasing waste arisings are an ongoing problem for Northern Ireland, with the provisional data showing that LAs collected 223,000 tonnes of waste in the last three months of 2014 – an increase of just over two per cent compared to the previous year. This was largely driven by an increase of 2.6 per cent in household waste arisings, which rose to 198,242 tonnes, and accounted for 89 per cent of total municipal waste arisings.

DOE highlights that the rise in household waste (non-household waste arisings remained within similar rates to last year) marks the seventh consecutive quarter-on-quarter increase in waste arisings, stretching back to April to June 2013. (Up until then, the longer-term trend had been a gradual reduction in the quantity of LAC municipal waste each year from a high of 1.06 million tonnes in 2006/07 to a low of 914,000 tonnes in 2012/13.)

The department states that factors affecting LAC municipal waste range from ‘individual household behaviours, the advice and collection services provided by local authorities and to some extent the state of the economy which continues to show signs of recovery’.

Landfill rates fall by five per cent

Despite increasing waste arisings, however, the amount of waste sent to landfill fell to 101,000 tonnes, dropping from just over 50 per cent of all waste collected to 45 per cent – breaking last year’s record for the lowest landfill rate for the autumn period (in Northern Ireland).

The arc21 group landfilled the largest proportion of its collected waste (49.9 per cent), although this was a decrease of 3.1 per cent on the same quarter last year. SWaMP2008 landfilled 40.9 per cent, an improvement of nine per cent, while NWRWMG landfilled the lowest percentage of its waste, 37.6 per cent, sending 6.4 per cent less to landfill than last autumn.

The reduction has largely been achieved through an increasing quantity of waste being diverted for energy recovery, as well as a smaller increase in the quantity if not proportion of waste sent for recycling.

DOE states: ‘A large drop in landfill could be due to a change in the way in which a council(s) chooses to handle the residual waste that is collected. Instead of sending straight to landfill, dirty MRFs (material recovery facilities) are becoming more popular as a way of capturing more recyclable material from residual waste. This material can also be sent for energy recovery in the form of refuse-derived fuel (RDF), which also diverts it from landfill. In addition, the on-going Rethink Waste campaign is encouraging the NI population to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle their waste.’

It says that landfill tax for household waste ‘continues to be the main driver for local authorities to reduce landfill’, along with limits on the amount of biodegradable waste that can be sent to landfill.

DOE notes, however, that even though ‘generating energy from waste by incineration is preferable to landfill… recycling and reuse are preferable to both’.

An annual report, with fully validated figures for 2014/15, is scheduled for 26 November 2015.

Council changes

There is one more set of statistics (January to March 2015) expected in this format before the reports begin reflecting the change in council boundaries.

As of 1 April 2015, the 26 councils in Northern Ireland were merged into 11 new ‘super’ councils, under a programme of governmental reform.

Aside from a change in boundaries (with several councils merging into one), the new system gives councils greater powers and responsibilities.

These include:

• local planning functions (with councils leading community planning processes);
• off-street parking;
• local economic development;
• community development (will transfer in April 2016); and
• urban regeneration (will transfer in April 2016).

DOE has stated that whilst the changes are ‘not yet within the scope of the reporting period’, format of reporting will ‘necessarily change from April to June 2015/16 in order to align with the new geography’. It added that users will be consulted on the proposed new reporting arrangements in June 2015, with a view to implementing in the April to June 2015 publication, which is scheduled for 22 October 2015.

Read the full provisional ‘Northern Ireland Local Authority Collected (LAC) Municipal Waste Management Statistics – October to December 2014’ report.