Opinion

Waste tonnages demonstrate need for new waste infrastructure

I write in response to a letter written by four MLAs for South Antrim (January 19) questioning the need to develop modern waste infrastructure for local councils representing 1.1 million people.

At arc21, our priority is to reduce the amount of waste produced, increase recycling and divert waste from landfill. To manage our remaining, non-recyclable waste we need to develop new waste infrastructure in Northern Ireland. This is consistent with the proximity principle which seeks to treat waste near to where it is produced. Failure to do so will lead to further landfill and more waste being exported overseas at a time when the Committee on Climate Change is recommending that such practices are phased out.

As the pictures in December of local waste exports being washed up on the shores of a beach in Maine USA demonstrated, our current approach is not environmentally sustainable and is damaging to our international reputation. We need appropriate infrastructure to deal with our own waste crisis; we cannot continue to treat our waste as someone else’s problem.

It has been queried whether there is enough waste to warrant the need for arc21’s proposed infrastructure. Unfortunately, until society addresses its current levels of consumption and waste production, we do. Indeed, over the past nine years the amount of waste we produce has increased by 9 per cent and in the latest published quarterly waste statistics, waste increased by 5 per cent on the previous year’s data.

Based on up-to-date figures, which support the councils’ previous Waste Management Plan (2015), the need for new facilities remains (and indeed is increasing in urgency) to deal with household waste that is currently being landfilled or exported overseas for incineration, and to provide some capacity for other waste types, including clinical and commercial waste.   

The arc21 region produces 15 million black bins worth of residual waste annually. We are confident the proposed waste management facilities for Hightown are appropriately sized and will allow us to turn this rubbish into economic opportunity.

The best way progress this matter is for the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to finalise its new needs report which will allow planners to complete the process of making an evidence-based recommendation on the proposal.

TIM WALKER


Acting CEO, arc21

Jaundiced view of the world

Tom Collins (January 25) has a jaundiced view of the world, and, arguably, in so doing overlooks some obvious observations.

Referencing the ‘former’ president of the United States is perhaps a tad premature as, insofar as I am aware, President Trump has not conceded defeat to ‘president’ Joe Biden.

In the 2000 presidential election the Democrat candidate Al Gore infamously prematurely conceded defeat to Republican George W Bush and lived to regret doing so as the finer details of the election later emerged.

President Trump apparently doesn’t do regrets and, although perhaps unlikely, new evidence may yet emerge that leads to a change of incumbent president.

As such we can be said to be living during a period of time that has two popes and two presidents of the United States.

How cool is that?

Secondly, those of a certain age well remember those days when a courting couple would suddenly split to go their separate ways, and the young woman travel to either Britain or the Continent for a few months while her beau would travel overseas for work.

Usually this pattern of behaviour heralded the arrival of a ‘love child’ born out of wedlock, and the young woman would have the baby and leave it with the Church or a state organisation to rear or put up for adoption.

If the young woman or her parents hadn’t the means to do so then the workhouse often beckoned.

In a plot worthy of television series The Crown, if we name this hypothetical young couple Camilla and Charles, then is it time to invite the (Catholic?) real heir to the British throne to please step forward?

BERNARD MULHOLLAND


Belfast BT9

At least Sinn Féin is consistent

I was surprised at the reaction of those on social media to Michelle O’Neill and Sinn Féin having  objections to the British military personnel working in the hospitals across the north. Sinn Féin, while administering power from Stormont, have no objection to the thousands of British military and security personnel who are based here daily in Palace Barracks, Aldergrove and other military establishments.

Remember this is the same Sinn Féin who swore never to enter a partionist assembly but now sit proudly in Stormont. Who can forget the infamous phrase, “not a bullet not an ounce”, yet when their British paymasters told them to decommission all their weapons, they did so accordingly.

People shouldn’t be surprised at any perceived change in Sinn Féin policies, they will consistently jump to the tune of their British paymasters.

 S FOX


Glengormley, Co Antrim

Another pressure on schools

I have long been of the opinion that schools are becoming the spine of society. As well as providing an overloaded curriculum, schools have been tasked continually with new initiatives.


Some of these include the integration of all services providing for children, extended schools, a move to bespoke education and many other equally valuable and relevant programmes.  Schools and their staff are to be applauded for their ability to adapt and provide these services.


The Marcus Rashford campaign on providing free school meals in holidays adds to the importance of schools.


In lockdown schools have gone the extra mile not just to teach their pupils online but to look after their pastoral and wellbeing needs.

The avoidable examination debacle of last year is being handled, this year, by teachers awarding grades coupled with external review. It is essential that further stress is not caused to schools by parents using legal routes to challenge their children’s grades.


The Department of Education must offer indemnity to schools from legal challenges to teacher assessment.

ENDA CULLEN


Armagh City