Assessing Bulky Waste in Northern Ireland

Resource Futures carried out a comprehensive review of bulky wastes in Northern Ireland. The review considered quantities arising, types, sources and destinations of bulky waste materials; and importantly the capacity for reuse of such material.The report is intended to be a useful contribution to the waste prevention strand of the Northern Ireland Waste Management Strategy.

An important part of this project involved quantifying the bulky waste arisings at Household Waste Recycling Centres and through council bulky waste collections, using our previous experience and existing data on the bulky waste stream to inform the estimates. Another important stage of this research involved a comprehensive survey of all local authority waste managers in Northern Ireland which established current bulky waste arisings as well as drivers and barriers to increasing reuse of bulky items.

In addition, research was conducted into numerous ‘other avenues’ through which bulky items could pass. These included fly tipping incidents, online exchanges such as Freegle, the work of furniture reuse organisations, car boot sales and private classified adverts. Many of these are important waste prevention measures which stop a bulky item becoming waste in the first place.

The contribution of social enterprises was considered, along with their capacity for processing any additional tonnages diverted for reuse and the market for such items. Finally, recommended actions for the local authorities were offered, intended to promote and catalyse expansion of existing reuse avenues.