NW biggest wasters

The latest quarterly report from the Department of the Environment (DoE) found people living in the North West Region Waste Management Group (NWRWMG) - which includes Londonderry, Strabane and Limavady - dumped the highest amount of waste per capita in Northern Ireland.

“NWRWMG had the highest household waste arisings per capita at 117 kg/ca, with 114 kg of household waste arisings collected per head of population in both arc21 (Greater Belfast) and SWaMP2008 (the South West). arc21 had the highest amount of waste landfilled (75 kg/ca), whilst SWaMP2008 had the highest amount recycled/composted (42 kg/ca),” the new report states.

Last year nearly 500 kilogrammes of rubbish were dumped in NWRWMG per person last year - 11 kilos more than their countryfolk in the south of Northern Ireland.

The latest figures show NWRWMG households dumped a total of 12,591 tonnes of waste between January and March. Nine thousand tonnes were landfilled whilst 3590 tonnes were either recycled or composted.

In the Londonderry district 115 kilogrammes per person were dumped. Eighty-two kilogrammes per person were landfilled whilst 33 kilogrammes per person were recycled or composted.

The latest edition of the Northern Ireland Municipal Waste Management Statistics, containing statistics for January to March 2011, was published last week.

The report contains summary information on nine key measurements on municipal waste collection in Northern Ireland, with more detailed district council information available in Excel appendices.

The quarterly figures are based on provisional data and may change when a final validation is conducted at the end of the financial year.

A total of 233,516 tonnes of municipal waste were collected in Northern Ireland, with 88 per cent household waste and 12 per cent non-household waste.

The percentage of the municipal waste sent for recycling and composting was 32.5 per cent. This is a rise of more than three percentage points compared to the corresponding quarter in 2010.