DoE ace cool award for recycling effort in NI

The Department of Environment (DoE) has won a prestigious National Award for recycling waste fridges and freezers in the province.

Former Wimbledon tennis champion, Pat Cash, presented the award for Best Partnership Project for Recycling at the UK-wide National Recycling Awards ceremony in Telford, England yesterday before an audience of over 800 members of the recycling industry.

The Award recognised the key role that partnership played in the success of an all-island solution to the problem of waste fridges and freezers.

DOE worked in partnership with DFP, colleagues in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in the Republic of Ireland and local government on both sides of the border, to develop, award and monitor an All-Island contract to manage the problem of waste domestic fridges and freezers in an environmentally sound manner.

Judena Goldring from the DOE Environmental Policy Group said: “Our initiative demonstrated the opportunities that can and should be exploited through partnerships to develop synergies for the management of this and other problematic waste streams.

“Managing our waste more sustainably is a major challenge for all of us and this is an excellent example of utilising innovative technology to remove the environmentally harmful substances and recycling the remainder of our waste fridges and freezers rather than consigning them to landfill sites.”

All 26 district councils in Northern Ireland and 32 of the 34 local authorities in the Republic participated in the scheme, where existing contract arrangements precluded the other two local authorities.

To date, almost 75,000 fridges have been processed resulting in the recovery and destruction of 12,500 kg of CfC’s - the chemicals linked to the destruction of the ozone layer and which contribute to global warming.

(MB)