Northern Ireland’s recycling and composting rate reached a ‘new quarterly peak’ of 45.1 per cent between July and September 2013, new figures have revealed.

According to the provisional ‘Northern Ireland Local Authority Collected (LAC) Municipal Waste Management Statistics July – September 2013’, published today (23 January), local authorities sent over two per cent more material for recycling and composting than during the same period the previous year (when they recycled/composted 42.8 per cent).

The higher level has been attributed to a ‘continued improvement in both household and non household recycling’, as well as higher levels of composting (due to ‘good weather’).

Landfill rates also continued to fall last summer, with 47.4 per cent of waste sent to landfill in the second quarter of 2013/14, the lowest quarterly landfill rate on record (breaking the previous record, set the three months before). This represents a reduction of over four percentage points on the proportion landfilled in the equivalent quarter last year (51.8 per cent).

Household waste figures

Local authorities in Northern Ireland recycled or composted 45.7 per cent of household waste (up 1.7 per cent on the year before). Of this, the majority (24.6 per cent) was composted, with the remaining 21 per cent recycled.

Notably, however, the figures show a vast improvement in glass recycling compared to the same period the year before, with capture increasing by eight per cent to 38.7 per cent.

Landfill rates for household waste also fell, with 47 per cent of household waste sent to landfill, down from 50.6 per cent during the same period in 2012.

Overall, a total of 246,293 tonnes of local authority collected municipal waste were collected in Northern Ireland, slightly down from the same quarter in 2012, when 247,487 tonnes were collected.

Environment Minister Mark H Durkan welcomed the ‘highest ever’ summer recycling rate, saying: “The continued increase in recycling rates to their highest ever summer levels is welcomed news. Together with the continued decrease of landfilled waste, 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 can be collected at the kerbside for recycling. I very much commend the public for the effort they put into recycling.”

Durkan went on to ‘encourage’ people to check what they can recycle in their area by visiting their council’s website or Rethink Waste NI.

A full report of the ‘fully validated’ 2013/14 figures will be published on 27 November 2014.

Read the provisional ‘Northern Ireland Local Authority Collected (LAC) Municipal Waste Management Statistics July – September 2013’