AQW 27172/17-22

Ms Sinéad McLaughlin
Social Democratic and Labour Party
Foyle

Tabled Date: 09/12/2021
Answered On Date: 23/12/2021
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (i) whether his department will investigate reports that municipal waste is being exported and illegally dumped in Romania and elsewhere; (ii) to detail where municipal waste from Northern Ireland is exported.

Answer:

My officials in NIEA are working with their regulatory counterpart Agencies in England, Scotland and Wales to establish more information on the origin of the waste identified in the media report to which you refer. To date, the Romanian Competent Authority has not contacted NIEA regarding this matter, as would be expected, if the illegal waste was from Northern Ireland, as required under European Regulation (EC) No: 1013/2006 on Shipments of Waste.

As I informed you in May, municipal sourced waste was exported to Belgium, Benin, Cameroon, China, Denmark, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Ivory Coast, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, USA and Vietnam in 2019 -20. Some of this waste will be single streamed waste, for example textiles were exported to those African nations highlighted above.