We had a great day at this year’s LARAC Scotland Conference on 6th May. We were at a new venue; The Thistle Hotel in Glasgow and we had a new sponsor, the European Recycling Platform (ERP) who kindly financed the event for the first time. Stratton MacDonald, our Scotland Representative, drew up the programme as usual and this year it had an emphasis on the bigger picture. SEPA kicked us off by outlining the effects of the various waste regulations that now apply to Scottish Authorities.
Next up the Scottish Government outlined the new Waste Brokerage service that has been developed, its aim and objectives and how it is hoped that wider social outcomes could result from it. Continuing on the materials theme; Nicki Souter rounded off the first session looking at how communications can deliver more materials to the end markets in the right quality.
After coffee ERP gave an interesting outline of how the changes in WEEE regulations will impact on local authorities and also the resources available when they come to procure a supplier for their CA sites. Last before lunch Callum Hay showed the role that collection calendars have played during the implementation of the three weekly collection service at Falkirk.
After the lunch break the focus moved to re-use with Zero Waste Scotland providing plenty of reasons why more work should be done on this area. Izzie Johnstone also provided a comprehensive list of the work areas on re use that Zero Waste Scotland are currently engaged in to support local authorities and others. Next the delegates heard about the findings from the recent CIWM Ricardo AEA report into the impacts of austerity on local authorities, including how innovative solutions have been adopted.
Rounding out the Conference Iain Gulland, Director at Zero Waste Scotland gave his informative and insight view of the world. Given we were still in purdah this was still a wide ranging roam around a variety of issues that resulted in a lively debate around packing compliance.
As ever the Conference was a great event and delegates engaged throughout all the question and answer sessions. Our special thanks to Stratton MacDonald for putting the programme together, to all the speakers, and to of ERP for their generous support which enabled LARAC to put on the event and of course thanks to all those who attended.
The presentations are now on the LARAC website – in the members’ area, so use your membership number and password to log in and take a look on the Conference Presentations page.
