The latest edition of the Northern Ireland Municipal Waste Management Statistics, containing statistics for October to December 2009, is now available.

The report contains summary information on nine key measurements on municipal waste collection in Northern Ireland. The quarterly figures are based on provisional data and may change when a final validation is conducted at the end of the year. The key points for the quarter October to December 2009 are:

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Municipal Waste

• A total of 234,683 tonnes of municipal waste were collected in Northern Ireland, with 88% household waste and 12% non-household waste.
• The percentage of the municipal waste sent for recycling and composting was just under 30%. This is a rise of more than one percentage point compared to the corresponding quarter in 2008.
• The percentage of municipal waste sent to landfill was approximately 67%. The proportion sent to landfill for this quarter was almost four percentage points lower compared to that for October to December 2008.
• Of the municipal waste collected for recycling, green waste accounted for one-third (33%), and this was slightly more than the proportion accounted for by paper (30%). One-tenth was accounted for by glass and cans.

Household Waste

• Of all household waste collected, approximately 21% was recycled and almost 11% was composted. The overall proportion of household waste sent for recycling and composting (32%) saw an increase of one percentage point compared to the corresponding quarter in 2008.
• The percentage of household waste sent to landfill was just over 65%. This is a reduction of more than three percentage points on the October to December 2008 figure.
• There were 116 kilogrammes of household waste collected per head of population in Northern Ireland, of which 37 kilogrammes was recycled or composted.

Biodegradable Waste

• Northern Ireland has an allocation of 470,000 tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste that can be sent to landfill in 2009/10. In the period October to December 2009, a total of 96,904 tonnes of biodegradable waste were sent to landfill, which equates to 21% of the annual allocation.

Source: DOE