Household Waste Accounted For Almost 90% Of All Waste Collection

Councils in Northern Ireland collected more than 225,000 tonnes of municipal waste in the first three months of 2017, according to the latest figures published today by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.

The figures found a small fall in the amount of waste collected when compared to the same period, January to March, in 2016.

Household waste accounted for 89.1% of the total collected, with Newry, Mourne and Down generating the smallest quantity of household waste per person at 101kg. While the largest quantity per person was recorded in Antrim & Newtownabbey at 126kg.

The household waste preparing for reuse, dry recycling and composting rate was 39.7% between January and March 2017, an increase on the 38.2% recorded during the same three months of 2016. At council level, rates varied from 34.2% in Lisburn & Castlereagh to 45.2% in both Mid Ulster and Fermanagh & Omagh.

The latest quarterly landfill rate for household waste was 39.2%, a further reduction on the 40.4% recorded during the same three months of 2016. There were 54,633 tonnes of BLACMW sent to landfill between January and March 2017. This was 3.5% lower than the 56,605 tonnes sent between the same three months of 2016. However, it did account for a similar proportion of the annual allowance, 20.8% between January and March 2017 compared to 20.4% in the equivalent quarter of 2016.

The full report can be found the on DAERA website.

(MH/LM)