Northern Ireland will face a “costly catastrophe” unless there is a major rethink about how the region deals with its waste, an MLA is warning.
SDLP representative Colin McGrath was speaking as it was confirmed that there are currently just two remaining landfill sites in the north that accept household waste.
It recently emerged that the region exports a disproportionately high amount of waste for incineration.
Despite having just 3% of population, the north accounts for 16% of all UK exports of so-called residual waste.
Councils pay for the waste to be shipped overseas, mostly to Scandinavia, where it is used to generate heat and electricity.
Agriculture and Environment Minister Andrew Muir confirmed in a response to a written Assembly question that there are two landfill sites that can accept household waste – Cottonmount in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim and Craigmore in Co Derry, which are operated by Biffa and RiverRidge, respectively.
Mr Muir’s department declined to say how long each of the sites were expected to remain operational.
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs said it had “previously identified a need for additional residual waste infrastructure capacity as Northern Ireland currently exports large amounts of residual waste”.
It said the Strategic Investment Board (SIB) had been commissioned “to provide insight and technical support in addressing key waste challenges”.
“While householders and councils have reduced the amount of waste going to landfill, recycling rates are stagnating with approximately 51% of waste in residual bins comprising recyclable material,” the department said.
It said proposals aimed at reducing residual waste and increasing the quality and quantity of recycling are “pending publication”.
Mr McGrath said it was necessary “to rethink how we handle waste”.
The proposed incinerator at Hightown
“Part of any consideration has to be how we handle our waste at home. It it too easy to pay people to take our waste and then sell it overseas – though such practices cost the public purse and misses an opportunity to revenue raise for the public purse – both are literally a waste,” he said.
“I would urge the department to come up with alternatives to burying or paying for our waste to be taken away and find a model that fits our needs, the environment and the public purse too, otherwise we’ll face a costly catastrophe.”
The six councils that make up the Arc21 consortium are still pursuing their plan to build an incinerator at Hightown on the edge of north Belfast, which is currently being considered for planning approval.
Colin O’Hanlon of Indaver, the private company hoping to build the energy from waste plant on behalf of Arc21, said the absence of adequate infrastructure to process residual waste meant a reliance on export markets.
“The current approach is not only unsustainable and fraught with economic, environmental and reputational risks, but the markets for this waste are increasingly unreliable and volatile,” he said.
Colin Buick, the chair of campaign group No Arc21, said proposed policy changes could increase recycling rates, meaning the residual waste produced would equate to just half the capacity needed to run the Hightown plant.
“The incinerator would cost ratepayers in the order of £1.5 billion plus over a period of up to 25 years – at around £200 per tonne of waste incinerated,” Mr Buick said.
“This is well above the market rate and participating councils would be unable to escape long-term waste contracts.”