Debate contribution: Disposable Nappies: Collection and Recycling Scheme

Debate contribution by Mr Tom Buchanan on 27 January 2025.

MLA

Mr Tom Buchanan

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

27 January 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Disposable Nappies: Collection and Recycling Scheme

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4759390

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Principal Deputy Speaker. I thank all those who participated in today's debate. My colleague Michelle McIlveen, who moved the motion, pointed out that it has a two-pronged approach. The first prong is engagement between the Minister and councils on the development of a strategy for the collection and recycling of disposable nappies and other such products. Of course, if the Minister is serious about recycling and reducing landfill, that engagement must be led and driven by him. It cannot simply be left up to councils to act on some new non-statutory guidance with which the Department provides them in order to come up with such a strategy. Such an initiative must be spearheaded by the Minister and centrally driven. That is why the Alliance Party's amendment is disappointing: it removes the responsibility to bring forward such a strategy from the Minister and his Department and places it solely on local councils. The councils are there to engage with and deliver a strategy brought forward by the Minister, centrally, so that they are all dealing with the same thing, but not to actually develop the strategy. We heard comments from around the Chamber about there being willingness and support for the introduction of such a strategy amongst a number of councils. The second prong of the motion is the Minister and his Department taking an active role in promoting reusable nappy products as an alternative to disposables in an effort to reduce the amount of that waste that goes to landfill, which is currently almost 40,000 tons a year. While the Minister has set a recycling target of 70% by 2030, there is no sign of any movement by him or the Department on either of those two issues other than to issue guidance to councils, some of which already promote a number of reusable nappy incentive schemes. We have already heard about that in the debate. It is worth noting that the Minister has previously expressed a willingness to meet councils to discuss the potential introduction of such a scheme, but Alliance's amendment to the motion is not in keeping with that, raising the question: is the Minister rowing back from the position that Alliance took some time ago? Single-use or disposable nappies are one of the largest contributors to plastic waste, not only across the UK but globally. The market is expected to keep growing, fuelled by high birth rates in developing countries and ageing populations, which are likely to drive an increasing consumption of other absorbent hygiene products. It is clear that the amount of recyclable material in a single disposable nappy that is lost to landfill or incineration represents a significant drag on progress towards meeting Northern Ireland's recycling target of 70% by 2030 and our goal to promote a truly circular economy. There was only a fleeting reference to nappies and other absorbent hygiene products in the recent DAERA consultation. There was a commitment to provide councils with non-statutory guidance and explore recycling opportunities. That does not go far enough to address the issue, Minister. Northern Ireland has an opportunity to become innovative and groundbreaking in this area, but that requires you, as Minister, to take ownership of a bespoke strategy, developed centrally in conjunction with our councils. Are you willing to step forward, take that decision and move forward with a strategy from the centre, from here, rather than its coming from the councils? If we are serious about meeting our targets, I urge you to consider the Welsh model — you have said that you will — and, in conjunction with our councils, introduce a strategy to deal with the issue.

609 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:51 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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