Northern Ireland Resources and Waste Management Strategy

Northern Ireland has enormous opportunities to put the resources flowing through its economy to better use, increasing their value to the economy, offering scope for social gain, such as job creation, and reducing their impact on the environment. While the beginnings of a circular economy have emerged in recent years, with much higher recycling rates, there is potential to go further in realising value from the materials arising as waste at the end of their life. The strategy sets out the government’s vision for a more progressive approach to managing waste in Northern Ireland and this consultation document is designed to capture your thoughts on the strategy.

Everyone uses resources and creates waste, whether at home as a householder, in the workplace, or out and about. Equally, most organisations generate or handle waste to a greater or lesser extent.

The range of stakeholders generating and handling resources includes citizens, councils and diverse business types including retail, hospitality, education, healthcare, transport and manufacturing. All these sectors produce varying quantities and types of waste, reflective of their size and current business operating models. Each stakeholder faces different levels of challenge in making the transition, and so to be effective the strategy aims to deliver actions that resolve burdens, designing and tailoring new support to each sector so that improvements can be made and further opportunities identified.

This consultation is open to anyone, but we expect it to be of greatest interest to:

• Councils
• Waste management companies
• Reprocessors
• Trade bodies
• Business and industry
• The agricultural sector
• The construction and demolition sector
• Environmental organisations and
• Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO)

Please complete questions 1 to 4, to allow us to capture the background and geographical location of respondents.