Northern Ireland must step-up efforts to tackle waste management issues, the Environment Minister has warned, pointing at a possible capital investment in new treatment facilities.

Sammy Wilson, speaking at a Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) conference last week, insisted the waste sector should be driven by innovation, and currently is a top priority for his department.

Reaffirming his support for the reduce, reuse and recycle campaign, the Minister said: "Procuring and making operational a new major waste management infrastructure in a very demanding timescale will be critical if we are to deliver the strategy."

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Mr Wilson said Northern Ireland cannot continue to 'dump waste in large holes in the ground', without thought for the materials and energy that can be recovered, or for its impact on the environment.

"The EC Landfill Directive makes that clear and, as you know, sets stringent targets to reduce the volume of biodegradable municipal waste going to landfill. By 2010 we need to be down to 75% of the amount we landfilled in 1995 and this tightens until we get down to 35% by 2020," he said.

According to Mr Wilson, recycling offers many new business opportunities for the Northern Ireland economy.

"The key to a successful recycling sector will be innovation and it is hoped to encourage imaginative and original solutions to working with secondary materials; stimulating demand amongst end users so that recycling can be sustained and competition encouraged," said the Minister.

He added: "Northern Ireland requires a substantial programme of investment in new waste treatment infrastructure with an estimated capital investment of over £600million.

"As with all challenges which we face, waste management brings the opportunity to realise our potential and develop closer working relationships between central and local government."

(PR)