NIs Recycling Still Falls Behind, New Data Shows

3 August 2011

The Department for Environment yesterday (2 August) revealed Northern Ireland achieved an unaudited 35.4 percent municipal waste recycling rate in 2010/11 and a 37.5 percent household waste recycling rate, showing the country is still lagging

This represents a rise of 2.3 when compared to audited figures for 2009/10, but is still lower than the 43.6 percent municipal waste recycling rate achieved in Wales over the same period and England's 40.3 percent household waste recycling rate for the year ending September 2010.

The unaudited Northern Irish figures emerged after the country's department for Environment published a Northern Ireland Municipal Waste Management Statistics report showing that 34.4 percent of household waste was recycled or composted during the period.

Northern Ireland's environment minister Alex Attwood welcomed the progress that the country was making, but said he was "disappointed" to see that the amount of municipal waste produced in Northern Ireland in January-March 2011 had increased by 2.6 percent compared to the same period last year.

"This demonstrates that we cannot be complacent. Recycling is one of the many ways that we can make our local area a better place to live and invest and I will be pushing to make Northern Ireland the leader of recycling on these Islands," he said.

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Darrel Moore