News

North Down Dump on Scotland

1 October 2002

North Down Borough Council has decided that cutting costs is more important than common decency and has started dumping its waste on Scotland.

The council plans to export 30,000 tonnes of waste a year to Straid farm landfill site in Ayrshire for the next three years because disposal costs are much cheaper there. This decision came after Ballymena was embarrassed into cancelling its contract after it came under attack from Friends of the Earth and Ayrshire residents.

The exporting of waste is in breach of the proximity principle which states that it should be disposed of as close to the point of origin as possible. Such a principle is enshrined in the Scottish waste strategy but the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency seems content to turn a blind eye.

So far the Department of the Environment has failed to implement a waste management strategy for Northern Ireland. The DoE blames the Foot and Mouth outbreak for delaying the strategy but it has been dragging its heels for some time now. The strategy is finally due to be implemented near the end of the year but we may be in for a long wait.