Last week, I marked my first anniversary at LARAC. It has been an exciting and wild year filled with consultations, conferences, webinars, and workshops on the ever-evolving policy landscape. This job is full of continuous learning opportunities, and I am grateful to be here representing your views.
These past few weeks, my focus has been on the WEEE consultation and call for evidence; the deadline is Thursday, 7 March. I genuinely appreciate everyone joining us in the recent WEEE workshops. It was a truly collaborative effort and means we have a response with a solid representative voice to help set the stage for a future where polluter pay principles are upheld for all waste electronics. With the WEEE consultation (almost) behind us, our focus has shifted to responding to Scotland's draft Circular Economy Waste Route Map. Thanks to everyone who joined the working group and provided on-the-ground, pragmatic views on proposals.
On 19 February, we hosted a webinar for FlexCollect. During this session, critical insights from their interim report were shared, offering a valuable perspective on the evolving landscape of flexibles and looking at how residents in trials are getting on with the collections, as well as a look at how the practicalities of collecting and sorting are being tackled. If you missed it, fear not! You can watch it again here.
Our most recent LARAC webinar was on difficult-to-recycle materials, where we heard from speakers on disposable vapes, carpet recycling and batteries. Ian Upstone, our South East Regional Rep, spoke on the growing challenge vapes pose in recycling streams. He explored practical approaches that his local authority employ to educate the public about their kerbside collection scheme. During the webinar, Peter Moody, CEO of GAP, provided a deep dive into the world of batteries. His presentation included shocking video footage of runaway lithium-ion battery fires in various situations, emphasising the urgency of proper storage and handling for battery safety. We understand that a consultation on EPR for batteries is on the horizon - well, we hope so, or else it would be AAA tragedy...
The highlight of my month has to be visiting the Sherbourne Recycling MRF in Coventry. It offered a glimpse into the future of recycling and sorting processes. They use state-of-the-art AI technology to enhance the output quality of comingled materials, which is pretty cool to witness if you are a recycling geek like me.
Right now (1 March), I am en route to Stockport County FC for the North West LARAC regional event, where we will talk exclusively about food waste collections. My Trainline app indicates that by choosing train travel today, I am contributing to a reduction of 13kg in CO2 emissions. Let's hope my greener travel choice gets me there on time!
