The latest quarterly local authority report for collected municipal waste management has revealed a continuing reduction in the proportion of waste going to landfill.
WHEN it comes to diverting recyclable material that would otherwise go to landfill, householders in Fermanagh, arguably, have the best ‘product’ going.
That was confirmed this week by Gerry Knox, the director of technical services with Fermanagh District Council.
He told the Herald that, over the course of a year, some 4,000 tonnes of plastics, cardboard, newspapers/magazines, yogurt tubs and empty aerosol cans were lifted by the ‘green’ contractor engaged by the council.
“Yes, our recyclables are performing well and, again, we are grateful to the public for their participation and for their attention to minimise contamination. All this is very important because the contractor we have in place now is a very good one.”
At the end of last year, the Townhall had to issue a clarification advert following confusion over what should and should not go into blue bins. Dungannon council had indicated it was accepting glass.
However, as Mr Knox explained, Fermanagh does not accept glass in blue bins, for a number of reasons, one being that the contractor cannot separate glass from other recycled materials. However, glass is accepted at all Fermanagh council recycling centres and bottle banks throughout the county.
Meanwhile, the latest quarterly local authority report for collected municipal waste management has revealed a continuing reduction in the proportion of waste going to landfill.
Of all local council collected waste in Northern Ireland, 89% was household waste and 11% was non-household waste.
The report shows that, between July and September last year, the proportion of household waste sent to landfill dropped by 3.3 per cent compared to the same period the year before (to 51.1%).
And, during the same period, there was an improvement (1.5 per cent) in the household waste recycling and composting rate. This was a key contributing factor to the falling landfill rate.
The present recycling rate stands at 44.2%.
The Landfill Allowance Scheme places a statutory responsibility on district councils to landfill no more than the quantity of biodegradable local authority collected municipal waste for which they have allowances.
Mr Knox confirmed that Fermanagh was performing well in this regard.
“We are again OK for this incoming year for the amount of waste we’re going to produce. We don’t feel there is going to be any major issues unless there is an impact from the G8 Summit, which will generate additional waste.”
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