An updated market report by independent waste and bioenergy sector advisors, Tolvik Consulting, suggests that Northern Ireland needs the proposed arc21 residual waste treatment facility if it is to deliver the waste management strategy and meet circular economy targets which have recently been adopted into Northern Ireland law. Details of the report were shared today (3 June) by Indaver, the lead company behind the £240m Becon project (pictured), as it emphasised the ‘pressing need’ for a fully integrated waste management system to cope with Northern Ireland’s ‘growing waste’ and to avoid a future ‘crisis’ in waste management.
Currently much of the residual waste generated from households is either landfilled or exported at significant financial and environmental cost to fuel energy from waste plants abroad. In 2019/20 240,220 tonnes were sent to landfill and a further 235,783 tonnes exported for thermal treatment or disposal across GB, Europe and other parts of the world. These figures don’t factor in additional Commercial and Industrial (C&I) waste which also needs treated. Both current practices are considered ‘unsustainable, inefficient and entirely incompatible with the circular economy and wider climate change targets’, Tolvik says.
“It is critical that Northern Ireland develops a fully integrated waste management system here which brings all the existing waste management providers together in a joined-up way. “It is only by working together and investing in the necessary infrastructure that Northern Ireland will be able to maximise recycling levels, manage the remaining non-recyclable waste in a sustainable way and implement the principles of proximity and self-sufficiency.”
Source: Circular Online
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