N Ireland counts cost of illegal dumping

16 November 2006

At least 250,000t of household waste from the Republic of Ireland has been dumped illegally in Northern Ireland to date, according to environment minister, David Cairns.
The cost of clearing up the cross-border fly-tipping was likely to be ‘in the region of £30M’, and the problem appeared to be getting worse, Cairns revealed in a written question. He said 1,206 reports of fly-tipping had been reported to date this year, more than the total recorded in the whole of 2005 and 2004.
He said the Environment and Heritage Service – responsible for dealing with fly-tipping on a commercial basis since 2003 – was in the process of introducing a computer system known as ‘Flycapture’ which will record and track all reported incidents. The system has proved popular in Britain, and will be available for Northern Ireland within 12 months, if district councils show interest. Flycapture is a strategic tool which helps local authorities improve intelligence on fly-tipping and focus resource on fly-tip hotspots.
‘EHS will continue to rigorously investigate and prosecute all incidents of fly-tipping that are reported to it,’ he said.
The Department of Environment said it set up a dedicated environment crime team within EHS in September 2005 to combat waste-disposal activities, and that EHS was engaging in regular liaison meetings with its counterparts in ROI – as well as other interested agencies on both sides of the border. To date, more than 50 illegal landfill sites had been discovered in Northern Ireland containing Republic waste, according to the DOE. By the end of September, EHS had initiated 959 investigations on fly-tipping, with 86 prosecutions.
Meanwhile, Cairns revealed that the overall household recycling waste in Northern Ireland had increased from 6.6% in 1999-2000 to approximately 24% in 2005-06. Each person in the province generates 0.5t of household waste a year.

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