Summary
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has published a consultation entitled ‘Rethinking Our Resources: Measures for Climate Action and a Circular Economy in NI.’ DAERA would now like to hear your views on proposals aimed at improving the quality and quantity of household and non-household municipal recycling, how to improve reductions in food waste, how to cut landfill rates and how to get businesses on board to increase recycling rates.
The aim of this consultation is to bring forward new policy options for the DAERA Minister to consider. Proposals and
Documents
- Rethinking Our Resources: Measures for a Climate Action and a Circular Economy in NI - Consultation Document
- Annex A: Rethinking Our Resources - Consultation Questions
- Annex B: Rethinking Our Resources: Measures for Climate Action and a Circular Economy in NI - Abridged Version
- Annex C: Rethinking Our Resources - Regulatory Impact Assessment
- Rethinking our Resources Q&A Webinar Slides for April-May 2024
- Q&As for Rethinking Our Resources Webinar
Consultation description
The EU Circular Economy Package (CEP), which the UK committed to prior to EU exit, was transposed into domestic legislation in December 2020 via the Waste (Circular Economy) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020. This amended the content of the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 and introduced a range of targets including a municipal waste recycling target of 65% by 2035 (with interim targets of 55% by 2025 and 60% by 2030) and municipal waste landfill target of 10% or less by 2035.
This legislation also extended the definition of “municipal waste”, to include waste collected from sources other than households where the waste is similar in nature and composition. This means that most businesses, public sector and third sector organisations are now in scope of this revised definition. In addition to these targets, we also have a new recycling target arising from the Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, which requires Northern Ireland to achieve a 70% waste recycling rate by 2030.
The consultation has been collaboratively designed, building on several policy options based on responses to the 2020 Future Recycling Discussion Document. The proposals in the consultation are designed to maximise the benefits of recycling to the environment and to the local economy. This includes looking at options for making improvements to the ways we collect material from households and increasing recycling from businesses and producers of non-household municipal (NHM) waste.
Responding to the Consultation
We are encouraging everyone to respond to this consultation through the survey on our Citizen Space website, which you can access via the link below or by scanning the QR code.
It is not essential for everyone to answer every question, rather, we would prefer you to only answer the questions you feel are relevant to you or the organisation you are responding on behalf of.
Q&A Sessions
Q&A sessions have been organised to assist stakeholders with responses. The sessions will cover how stakeholders can best respond to the consultation for example, how to present evidence.
Sessions will be held via zoom and will last around 30 minutes. We are asking stakeholders to provide any questions for answer in advance of the sessions. Please email any questions to wastepolicyteam@daera-ni.gov.uk before 9am on Monday 29th April 2024.
If you are unable to attend the session but still wish to ask a question, please send this to the email address above. A list of questions and answers will be collated and published on this page following the webinar.
- Tuesday 30th April 2024 11am: Session for Councils, Elected Members and MLA’s
You can register by clicking this link - Wednesday 1st May 2024 2pm – Q&A session for all other stakeholders
You can register by clicking this link
The Q&A webinar slides are now available to view above.
Webinar
An information webinar on the current consultation is available to view below:
The closing date for responding to the consultation has been extended to 17:00 on the 27th of June 2024.
Ways to respond
Consultation closed — responses are no longer being accepted.