Banbridge (district) - Environmental Profile

Environmental Profile

Since the late 1990s more and more attention has been paid both by the local council and residents to enhancing the district’s environmental profile. Over the past decade Banbridge district has repeatedly recorded one of the highest levels of recycling in Northern Ireland. In 2009-2010, for example, almost 52% of household waste was recycled/composted. In June 2009, a bring-and-buy reuse shop, Restore, was also opened by the local council in an effort to reduce waste in the district. In May 2012 the council beat Warwickshire County Council and Cardiff City Council to win the best Local Authority Recycling Initiative at the ninth annual Awards for Excellence in Recycling and Waste Management.

In 2007 a biodiversity audit was carried out and in late 2007 a biodiversity action plan was published. Like the rest of Northern Ireland, woodlands make up only a small percentage of the district’s land cover (according to the Forestry Commission only 6.5% of Northern Ireland was forested in 2010). In recent years public funds have been committed to improving access to and the quality of outdoor spaces, including for example Solitude Park in Banbridge, the Newry Canal Towpath which runs through the western part of the district, and Slieve Croob taking in the Legananny Dolmen and the Finnis souterrain (known locally as Binder's Cove). Given the unfavourable topography, the district is not currently home to any wind turbines, but it was announced in May 2010 that a biogas site would be built.