The local authorities include, in alphabetical order: Ballymoney Borough Council; Coleraine Borough Council; Derry City Council; Limavady Borough Council; Magherafelt District Council; Moyle District Council; and Strabane District Council. The Councils have formed this grouping expressly for strategic waste planning purposes.

The Plan has been developed to provide a regional approach to improving waste management practices. This approach has mutual benefits including for example, increased opportunity with respect to meeting obligations, through economies of scale, and sharing of resources and targets.

The primary purpose of this Plan is to set out the arrangements for the management of the wastes arising within the NWRWMG, in fulfilment of the Councils' statutory obligations under the EU Waste Framework Directive, and The Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997.

The NWRWMG's overall aim, and associated objectives for the waste planning process, are as set out below.

To provide community and civic leadership in the provision of improved waste management services through:

• providing leadership to assist in meeting statutory obligations
  
• promoting public awareness through consultation and participation
  
• seeking to minimise environmental impact
  
• seeking to maximise economic benefit at acceptable costs
  
• building on existing resources and services
  
• a co-ordinated approach decision making based on data and feedback

Figure 2 The Waste Management Hierarchy

The objectives and targets of the NI Waste Management Strategy can be represented in the Waste Management Hierarchy, as illustrated below. The hierarchy highlights the need to move practices away from landfill disposal and to promote reduction, reuse, recycling and recovery.

Fundamental to achieving these policy objectives are recognition and acceptance by all sections of society, as producers of waste, of their responsibility to support and adopt more sustainable waste management practices, both at home and at work. It is implicit therefore that the perception of waste as an unwanted but necessary by-product will need to change, with recognition of its potential as a resource.