The Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) have claimed to be "successfully tackling" waste dumping, according to the head of its environmental crime unit. However, as reported regularly during the past years Monthly Bulletins, evidence would suggest that the incident rate has risen.
Northern Ireland has struggled to control illegal waste dumping since 2002, when landfill legislation was tightened south of the border in the Irish Republic. Between 2002 and 2004, around 250,000 tonnes of household waste was illegally dumped in the province after crossing the border, and 60 landfills containing such waste have been discovered. The number of illegal dumping incidents has also risen from 1,206 in the first 10 months of 2006, compared with between 1,000 and 1,200 for 2004 and 2005. These figures do not take into account fly-tipping, which is also a huge problem.
Despite these figures, Anne Blacker of the EHS claimed they were dealing with the problem. "I think we're successfully tackling large-scale dumping. We're seeing a lower number of incidents and they are smaller in scale." The number of people prosecuted for illegal dumping in the Province has increased from four in 2003, to 86 in the first 10 months of 2006.
Northern Ireland is currently returning dumped waste to Ireland for disposal, and this month they hope to send back several hundred tonnes from an illegal landfill in Armagh. However, the main barrier to further progress is a lack of resources at the environmental crime unit, made worse by the large number of prosecutions they are currently involved with.
