Consultants were appointed in early 2000 to assist arc21 in the production of the Plan and in January 2001, a Waste Strategy was issued. This contained overall targets and objectives and thus acted as a precursor and foundation for the development of the Plan.

The Draft Waste Management Plan was issued for public consultation in February 2002. It considered the different waste options in detail and proposed a solution for managing waste until 2020. The public consultation exercise was programmed for three months but lasted slightly longer due to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease. The public consultation was followed by formal consultation with the Environment & Heritage Service and this culminated in the Waste Management Plan being submitted to the Minister during the autumn of 2002.

Angela Smith, the Minister of the Environment in Northern Ireland, formally approved the Plan in November 2002. All eleven of the arc21 constituent Councils adopted the Plan by January 2003. The Councils immediately commenced implementing the Plan with a major plank being the establishment of an administrative delivery mechanism entailing the formation of a Joint Committee.

The first meeting of the Joint Committee was held in Ballymena in June 2003 and it was agreed to apply to the DOE to have body corporate status. This was granted on the 15 th March 2004 through the Local Government (Constituting a Joint Committee a Body Corporate) NI Order 2004.

The Joint Committee employed its first member of staff, the Chief Executive, in September 2004 and awarded its first contract for the recycling of commingled dry recyclables in February 2005.