What this document is
Northern Ireland’s council system as it operates: what each council collects, where the residual goes, and what is changing.
- The 11 councils collected 1,010,410 tonnes in 2024/25 and recycled 50.4%. Residual was 500,832 tonnes.
- Landfill has fallen to under 5% of collections. Most residual is now pre-treated and burned for energy, and about 302,000 tonnes were exported in 2025.
- The 70% recycling target for 2030 would bring residual toward 300,000 tonnes, and the only planned NI treatment facility awaits a decision.
Northern Ireland
Feedstock System Assessment
Northern Ireland recycles half of what it collects. The other half is mostly burned for energy, and much of that leaves the country.
How the system works today
Northern Ireland’s 11 councils collect household and some commercial material and arrange its treatment in three ways. arc21 procures for six councils: Antrim & Newtownabbey, Ards & North Down, Belfast, Lisburn & Castlereagh, Mid & East Antrim, and Newry, Mourne & Down. The North West Region Waste Management Group covers Causeway Coast & Glens and Derry City & Strabane. Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon, Mid Ulster and Fermanagh & Omagh act independently.
Volumes by council, 2024/25
| Council | Total t | Household t | Residual t | Landfilled t | Energy recovery t | Recycling % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antrim & Newtownabbey | 109,028 | 82,198 | 44,177 | 22,472 | 20,868 | 59.5 |
| Ards & North Down | 83,605 | 78,230 | 36,391 | 23,915 | 12,276 | 56.5 |
| Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon | 110,210 | 98,721 | 50,559 | 5,682 | 41,602 | 54.1 |
| Belfast | 161,320 | 139,825 | 97,813 | 1,372 | 95,999 | 39.4 |
| Causeway Coast & Glens | 81,695 | 70,230 | 42,177 | 14,491 | 25,394 | 48.4 |
| Derry City & Strabane | 83,236 | 72,635 | 41,563 | 5,989 | 32,581 | 50.1 |
| Fermanagh & Omagh | 57,134 | 49,615 | 30,916 | 13,983 | 15,250 | 45.9 |
| Lisburn & Castlereagh | 78,739 | 69,699 | 38,727 | 25,675 | 12,696 | 50.8 |
| Mid & East Antrim | 75,880 | 66,579 | 38,584 | 27,446 | 10,910 | 49.2 |
| Mid Ulster | 84,181 | 72,982 | 36,017 | 23 | 35,906 | 57.2 |
| Newry, Mourne & Down | 85,383 | 77,274 | 43,908 | 787 | 42,656 | 48.6 |
| Northern Ireland | 1,010,410 | 877,988 | 500,832 | 141,836 | 346,138 | 50.4 |
DAERA LAC Municipal Waste Data Tables 2024/25 (final). Residual = total minus reused, recycled and composted; it includes some separately collected wood sent to energy recovery and unclassified process losses. The 2024/25 landfill column predates arc21’s February 2025 change and overstates today’s landfill. DAERA’s 2025/26 figures are due in November 2026.
Where the residual goes
arc21 procures residual treatment through a Dynamic Purchasing System, in lots of four years with options to extend four more. Belfast’s lot moved to a new contractor in July 2023; the other five councils’ lots started between October 2024 and February 2025, after which none of the six sent residual direct to landfill. Derry City & Strabane awarded its residual lot, up to 44,000 tonnes a year, to a Portadown operator in 2022. The three independent councils send residual to a privately operated facility for pre-treatment.
Much of the pre-treated residual leaves Northern Ireland as refuse-derived fuel. About 302,000 tonnes were exported in 2025 — 16% of UK residual exports from under 3% of its population — more than 80% through Warrenpoint, mostly to energy-from-waste plants in Scandinavia (press-reported). Two landfills still accept household material.
What is changing
- Landfill Tax is £130.75 a tonne in 2026–27 and £136.70 from April 2027, uprated with inflation.
- Recycling target. The Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 requires 70% by 2030. The rate has been flat at 49–51% since 2018/19, with 53.0% in the latest quarter. DAERA says about half of what goes in the residual bin is recyclable.
- Draft strategy. DAERA’s Rethinking Our Resources consultation (closed May 2026) proposes a 10% municipal landfill cap by 2035.
- Deposit return for drinks containers starts on 1 October 2027.
- Carbon pricing on incineration. The UK delayed its scheme for energy from waste in August 2026; in Northern Ireland the EU system applies under the Windsor Framework and is being transposed.
The regional treatment process
arc21’s application for a residual energy-from-waste facility and mechanical-biological treatment at Hightown was first lodged in 2014. Permission granted in 2017 was ruled unlawful in 2018; a 2022 refusal was quashed in 2023 and the application is being re-determined. Further information is due by December 2026, with a ministerial decision hoped for in early 2027. An earlier capacity assessment for arc21 found a Northern Ireland residual treatment gap of 124,000 tonnes in 2035 even with Hightown built.
Carbotura is not a participant in that process and is not arguing against it. What we can state is what our own process does and does not do. Advanced Circular Manufacturing involves no combustion at any stage. There is no oxygen in the process, no stack and no ash. Carbotura does not sell power, electricity or hydrogen and is not an energy-from-waste operator. It is a manufacturing destination, and its lead time is 12 to 24 months from permit issuance.
Where Carbotura is today
Carbotura has a signed 30-year Circular Supply Agreement with York County, Pennsylvania, for a 400 TPD Standard Deployment — the same size as each of the four units proposed here.
That plant is in deployment now, with commercial operation targeted for late 2027 to early 2028. It will be operating before any council here has to decide, so this proposal can be evaluated against a running plant rather than a document.
What this means for a deployment
Northern Ireland presents 500,832 tonnes of council residual a year, spread across 11 councils within reach of one central point on the M1, a large share of it leaving the country, and no committed in-country treatment capacity.
Four 400 TPD units, added one a year, reach 1,600 TPD: enough for all of today’s council residual with 14% headroom, and sized so that rising recycling reduces each council’s tonnes without leaving any council contracted for volume it cannot deliver.
Appendix A — Data status
VERIFIED: council tonnages and recycling rates (DAERA 2024/25, final); quarterly rates (DAERA, April–June 2026, provisional); population (NISRA mid-2025); Landfill Tax 2025–26 and 2026–27 (HMRC); arc21 group membership and contract starts (arc21 Annual Report 2024/25); the Hightown timetable.
REPORTED, NOT VERIFIED: the 2025 export tonnage and port share; Landfill Tax 2027–28. NOT PUBLISHED: any council’s residual price per tonne. ESTIMATED: residual at 70% recycling; composition; employment; site requirements; haul distances. NOT IDENTIFIED: any candidate site.
Appendix B — Sources
- DAERA — LAC Municipal Waste Data Tables 2024/25 (11 December 2025); quarterly report April–June 2026 (22 October 2026); Rethinking Our Resources consultation (2026)
- NISRA — 2025 mid-year population estimates
- arc21 — Annual Report 2024/25 (25 September 2025)
- Joint Councils Waste Management Plan Addendum (December 2024)
- Becon project — timetable announcement (24 September 2026)
- HMRC — Landfill Tax rates
- Industry report on UK residual exports, 2026, as reported in the Northern Ireland press