'Waste Watch' is launched

A NEW website and magazine offering recycling advice and updates on the development of new waste infrastructure in the North West have been launched.

Developed by the North West Region Waste Management Group (NWRWMG), the umbrella waste group for seven councils in the north-west, including Derry, the new “Waste Watch” magazine and website will keep the public up to date with plans to develop modern new waste facilities for the region.

The group is developing a 500million waste infrastructure facility which will help boost recycling rates and convert other materials into green energy.

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The Chair of NWRWMG, Evelyne Robinson, said: “Every year householders across the north-west region produce around 200,000 tonnes of waste, and at the moment the majority of that ends up in landfill sites.

“Apart from the environmental impact, new European regulations mean that we have to significantly reduce our reliance on landfill. Failure to do so could lead to substantial fines for councils and ratepayers.

“While the primary focus of councils is to boost recycling and composting levels by at least 50 per cent by 2020, NWRWMG is also considering, in line with best practice in Europe, a number of energy recovery treatments which will turn non-recyclable waste into clean, renewable energy.

“While these technologies are already used elsewhere, they are new to Northern Ireland, so we want to keep people informed with progress both in the procurement and in the actual technology behind these innovative waste management facilities. The website and Waste Watch magazine will help us to do just that.”

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“Waste Watch” will be published twice-yearly and will be available from councils or NWRWMG’s new website: www.northwestwaste.org.uk

Ms Robinson added: “Recycling rates in the north-west have improved dramatically in recent years and the overall figure now stands at 34 per cent - more than an eightfold increase from just 4 per cent in 2002. That’s great progress, but we all need to do more if we’re to reach our target of 50 per cent by 2020.

“In addition to explaining how the new technologies will work, ‘Waste Watch’ and the new website will also provide recycling advice and news.

For the material which can’t be recycled, the proposed facilities will turn it into energy which could be used by businesses or to perhaps provide cheap heating for local housing.”

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NWRWMG’s procurement process is one of the largest ever undertaken in the north-west. The technologies under consideration are Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT), which it says will decidedly improve recycling rates, and Energy Recovery facilities. The Group has ruled out the use of conventional mass burn incineration.

A shortlist of four consortia are bidding to deliver the facilities and the contract is due to be awarded towards the end of 2010. The facilities are expected to be operational by 2014 and will create up to forty full time positions and many more construction jobs.

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