Hundreds of tonnes of waste from Northern Ireland are being dumped in Scotland every week, it was claimed tonight.
Concerns were raised after it emerged that Ballymena Borough Council in Co Antrim was using a Co Tyrone waste haulage firm to dump residential and commercial rubbish at a landfill site in Cairnryan, Dumfries and Galloway.
Friends of the Earth Scotland's chief executive Mr Kevin Dunion said: "This is a sizeable problem - 800 tonnes a week is equivalent to the waste from 35,000 homes. Transport to Scotland cannot be the best option for the waste. A local solution must be found."
The practice has prompted Mr John Woods of Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland to demand urgent action.
"Such has been the inertia of the Department of the Environment in tackling Northern Ireland's waste crisis that we have stooped to dumping our waste on the good people of Scotland," he said.
"We should be ashamed of ourselves. Ballymena Council should insist that their contractors find a means of disposal within Northern Ireland. Ballymena Council's chief environmental health officer was tonight unavailable for comment but Mr PJ McAvoy, a Ballymena councillor and former deputy mayor, was shocked to learn about the practice.
"When we take our waste to Cookstown [Co Tyrone] it's on the assumption that it's going to a landfill area there," he said. "We made no contract with anyone to ship our waste to Scotland," he added.
PA