Direct waste charging

The revised Northern Ireland Waste Strategy issued by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland (DoE NI) has promised to develop proposals which will provide councils with legal powers to charge for household waste collection. The strategy appears to have taken on board the criticism levelled at its 2000 predecessor, that it was weak, failed to address waste streams other than municipal waste and contained no delivery plan. The proposals are arguably more radical than the English equivalent and include details on:

• powers for district councils to charge for the collection of household waste;
• increased recycling and recovery targets;
• the replacement of the three regional waste planning groups with a single authority;
• the research to be carried out over the next three years, including surveys on waste electrical and electronic equipment;
• legislation and enforcement, which will specifically aim to reduce the amount of waste illegally disposed of.