Over 141,300 tonnes of biodegradable waste known to contribute to the climate crisis wound up in landfill over the past year in Northern Ireland.
Emissions from biodegradable landfill waste create methane, which is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
That’s why the Food Waste Regulations 2015 required the separate collection and treatment of food and garden waste by councils.
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Under the regulations districts were required to give every domestic property in their area a brown bin to facilitate the collections from 2017.
DAERA’s own 2013 Waste Strategy highlighted landfilled biodegradable waste as a major methane contributor, with its own Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990-2011 (published 2013) stating the waste sector contributed 454kt CO2 equivalent. It also highlighted EU proposals to introduce a ban on all biodegradable waste being sent to landfill by 2025.
Despite all that, the amount of biodegradable waste dumped in NI increased 11.8% from the quantity reported in 2020/21 (126,404 tonnes).
The 2021/22 waste figures from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs also show a quarter of all our waste still ends up in dumps even though we have a target to recycle 70% of everything we throw away by 2030.
Green Party councillor Anthony Flynn said: “Much more needs to be done to increase Northern Ireland’s recycling rates and far more quickly. Hovering around a 50% recycling rate across NI is simply not good enough and while the amount of waste we send to landfill is going up, so are the fees that councils pay in landfill tax.
“That is money that could be better used to provide public services for residents in our areas.
“Under the climate act passed by the assembly recently, Northern Ireland must reach a target of 70% recycling by the end of the decade, we will not meet those targets if more is not done to address the shortfall in recycling rates and the amount of waste sent to landfill,” he added.
“In Belfast, Green councillors have long pushed for expansion of recycling of glass and brown bin materials and for a standardised approach to recycling to increase our recycling rates in the city.
“We support moves which focus on addressing waste at source under extended producer responsibility and turning by-products into useful goods for the consumer under a circular economy approach.”
Northern Ireland’s councils collected 1,034,637 tonnes of waste in 2021/22 - similar to the amount collected in 2020/21.
But Keep Recycling Local would like to see big changes to the way our waste is managed across all 11 council areas.
Currently eight of the 11 district councils are split into two Waste Management Groups with three unaffiliated to any group.
Antrim & Newtownabbey, Ards & North Down, Belfast, Lisburn & Castlereagh, Mid & East Antrim, Newry, Mourne & Down are represented by arc21 which wants to build a controversial incinerator in Mallusk.
North West Regional Waste Management Group represent Causeway Coast & Glens and Derry City & Strabane.
A spokesperson for Keep Recycling Local: “Our recycling levels have dipped for the second year in a row.
“This shows we need to look again at how we recycle with a clear and consistent policy across Northern Ireland.
“It is inexcusable that we have ratepayers’ money being used to ship materials across the world for disposal that could be recycled locally and fed back into the circular economy, saving local businesses millions whilst reducing our carbon footprint.
“We need to sort out our recycling by adopting a three-stream approach that will be convenient for households, save councils over £12m a year and increase recycling levels dramatically. We need to keep our recycling local.”
DAERA was contacted for comment.
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