Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“Despite all the warm words spoken about recycling, the reality is that the Executive has not done enough.
“The shipping of thousands of tonnes of recycled material across the world from Northern Ireland and the fact that the end product of some recycling still ends up in landfill, illustrate the failings.
“At the end of recycling process, after waste materials have been processed through crushers, trammels and screeners, the fine material produced – often referred to as ‘fines’ – can be used for capping of landfill sites, but much of the surplus is itself being wasted, whereas it could be separated further through a wash plant so that the sand particles are divided from the larger materials like stones.
“Grant assistance to encourage such wash plants would enable sand recovered from waste to be mixed with sand extracted from natural sources, while the heavier aggregates could be used as fill in the construction industry – again reducing reliance on freshly quarried aggregates.
“Financial incentives and obligations for the construction industry to use recycled aggregates would increase demand for such and thereby encourage more recycling of waste rubble. Likewise, investment grants for recycling plants to encourage facilities to invest in newer plant and machinery would pay dividends in moving our recycling sector forward.”
Mr Allister was speaking after visiting, along with the TUV’s South Antrim Assembly candidate, Mel Lucas, the recycling plant of the McKinstry Group near Antrim and meeting with Mark and Darren McKinstry.