More effort required to increase recycling - Poots

Northern Ireland will need to be increasingly innovative in the way it tackles waste management, Environment Minister Edwin Poots insisted today.

During a keynote address to a stakeholder conference organised by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the Minister reaffirmed the promotion of waste recycling as a top priority for his Department.

As central and local government faces the challenge of delivering rigorous EU targets and the Northern Ireland Waste Management Strategy, Mr Poots told the conference: "The reality is that we cannot continue to dump our waste in large holes in the ground, without thought for the materials and energy that can be recovered from it, or for its impact on our environment.

"A need exists for work to be undertaken at a local level that will lead to improvements in waste management, in particular greater recovery and recycling.

"The Northern Ireland Waste Management Strategy recognised that a major obstacle to increasing levels of recycling and resource recovery in Northern Ireland is the lack of local markets for recovered materials, compost and products containing recycled material. Establishing sustained demand for these products is the most effective means of stimulating the market."

The Minister noted recycling rates in Northern Ireland continue to grow. During 2008/9 the local household waste recycling rate has been pushing 35%, compared to 4.9% in 1999.

Mr Poots continued: “Recycling offers many new business opportunities for the Northern Ireland economy.

"The key to a successful recycling sector will be innovation and it is hoped to encourage imaginative and original solutions to working with secondary materials; stimulating demand amongst end users so that recycling can be sustained and competition encouraged.

"I am a great believer that the environment and the economy do not need to be competitors. They can be partners helping us to build a stronger and better and more sustainable Northern Ireland.

The Minister paid tribute to the good work which was already taking place within councils supported by ROTATE - WRAP‘s District Council advisory programme.

He said work still needed to be undertaken at a local level that would lead to improvements, in particular greater recovery and recycling. The Minister added: “As with all challenges which we face, waste management brings the opportunity to realise our potential and develop closer working relationships between central and local government.

“This is an area that has a huge impact on both our local environment and the well being of every member of the public. Importantly, it is also an area where we all have a role to play.”

The conference, the sixth that WRAP has held in Northern Ireland, offered stakeholders the opportunity to put forward views on the opportunities that recycling presents to the economy and society of Northern Ireland.

Notes to editors:

1. WRAP helps individuals, businesses and district councils to reduce waste and recycle more, making better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change.
2. Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by government funding from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Department provides WRAP with annual funding of £1million, contributing to its overall budget of £55million.
3. For media enquiries please contact DOE Press Office 028 9054 0003 or out of office hours, contact the EIS Duty Press Officer on pager 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.