06-January-2021

In February 2021, RiverRidge celebrated its 10th year of operations. After purchasing Coleraine Skip Hire and Recycling in February 2011, RiverRidge grew the small family run skip hire business into Northern Ireland’s leading waste management company, employing over 280 people. The company’s success over the last 10 years has been due to its unwavering commitment to innovation, and desire to improve the sustainability of the environment we all live and work in. Landfill diversion In 2011, Northern Ireland lagged the rest of the UK and Ireland in the diversion of local authority waste from landfill. This metric was a fundamental part of the UK’s waste management strategy and a starting point for any sustainable economy’s commitment to protecting the environment. The widely accepted ‘Waste Management Hierarchy’ provides a guide for economies seeking to improve their overall sustainability in terms of waste management. The hierarchy ranks the six broad categories of waste management in order of preference with landfill (disposal) at the bottom and prevention at the top. It was this policy direction and the need for the UK to meet the then agreed Landfill Directive commitments that led to the introduction of the Landfill Tax Scheme in 1996, where a standard rate of tax that increased each year, was applied to any waste being landfilled. The tax started at £7 a tonne in 1996, increasing to £40 a tonne by 2011. The scheme played a key role in driving down the UK’s landfilled waste from 50 million tonnes in 1996 to under 28 million tonnes by 2011.   source: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/ulsterbusiness/profile/riverridge-celebrates-10th-birthday-with-further-commitment-to-innovation-and-environment-40117766.html