After a reasonably quiet Summer, things are certainly ramping up again as we head into conference season!
I am booked up for a number of speaking opportunities, flying the flag for local authorities and continuing to negotiate a pathway through the reforms.
I chaired a webinar last week for the LGA about reuse, which was a nice change to talking about recycling. Projects presented on included the impressive reuse hub in Greater Manchester and a project being run in collaboration with The Wave Project and SUEZ to reuse old wetsuits! We also heard from a Belgium colleague about how reuse shops are set up in Flanders.
Continuing with focussing higher up the waste hierarchy, I was asked to sit on a panel at RWM last week to discuss CIWMs strategy ‘Leading the way to a world beyond waste’, which again focusses on what can be done to minimise waste in the first place prior to recycling.
I was also part of a discussion with Valpak at RWM, regarding how the EPR regulations are impacting Local Authorities and also producers and compliance schemes. Its interesting to see and hear about the opinions of different stakeholders and parts of the value chain with regards to EPR and I feel that we are all trying to work together to try and develop a suitable solution. With regards to the waste hierarchy however, It still feels disappointing that the Government have missed a trick in trying to encourage more reusable packaging through the EPR scheme. It is hoped that once the scheme is bedded in, there will be more incentive to encourage packaging reuse and not just packaging recyclability.
Continuing into Autumn, I will be attending a few more events, not least of course the LARAC Conference being held in Birmingham on 11th & 12th October. This seems to have come around very quickly and will be my second year of chairing the conference. This time last year I remember eagerly awaiting the consistency response and talking at the conference about how we were disappointed by the delay. I definitely did not believe that I would be saying the same thing a year later!
The conference will be packed full of presentations, seminars, workshops and exhibitors and as always, promising to be an educational, informative and engaging two days – with of course the opportunity to also let your hair down and have a dance on the awards night!
I am really looking forward to it and looking forward to meeting some of you there to talk about all things waste! If you still haven’t signed up to come along, there are still a few day-only tickets available, but you need to be quick! Please go to this link for further information.
