The waste leaders session on 28 February was attended by 130 senior decision-makers form a broad cross-section of organisations working in and with the waste sector including waste contractors, local authorities, regulators, Government, waste producers and a variety of bodies involved with improving the UK’s performance on sustainable waste management.

Local Environmental Quality Minister, Ben Bradshaw, spoke at the event and took part in a detailed question and answer sessions. Speaking of the challenges ahead, he commented: ’While we have made significant progress in how we manage our waste in
recent years, we cannot afford to lose focus. We still face the prospect of
ever increasing amounts of waste and meeting our landfill directive targets
remains challenging.

’To meet these challenges we need to look at what we can do to continue the
recent improvements. The current consultation on England's waste strategy
outlines how we can work together to achieve this - by adapting and
broadening our approach in the key areas of waste prevention, recovering
more resources from our waste, integrating better between waste streams and
by improving our skills training’.

Input from the waste leaders day was fed into the conference on 1 March where speakers included: David Alexander, CIWM Waste Strategy Group chair; Steve Lee, CIWM chief executive;  Daniel Instone, head of waste strategy, Defra; Dirk Hazell, chief executive, Environmental Services Association; Councillor Paula Baker, deputy chair, Environment Board, Local Government Association; and Professor Chris Coggins who discussed energy recovery which has become a high-profile topic this year as a result both of the Waste Strategy review consultation and the Energy Review.

Regional perspectives were provided by  Dr Andy Rees, head of waste strategy at the Welsh Assembly Government, Ian Maye, director of environment at the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland and John Ferguson, waste and resources unit manager at SEPA.

180 delegates benefited from the broad-ranging presentations looking at different aspects of Waste Strategy.

A variety of views and questions were expressed from the floor at both events including the following:

• What is the Government doing to drive recycling? (the waste hierarchy was cited as a key existing driver)
• Collaboration between public and private sector needs to be incentivised
• There is a considerable cross-department challenge in Government to achieve joined-up thinking on issues such as planning and local government structure
• There is a need to focus more on commercial and industrial waste production and to encourage SMEs to recycle. A key driver would be an increase in the landfill tax escalator.
• The top of the waste hierarchy (ie waste prevention) should be incentivised. There should be waste prevention targets for businesses.
• Households and businesses do not appreciate the cost of their waste treatment
• The consultation is an aspirational document – we need the delivery of infrastructure and behaviour change immediately
• Cash investment should be at the top of the waste hierarchy
• Non-resource efficient plant and equipment should be taxed
• There is a very big focus on the organic fraction of municipal waste but this is small in volume compared to other waste streams
• ‘It’s a brave politician who will stick to a 20 or 25 year strategy which doesn’t deliver during their term of office. We should help them make these difficult decisions.
• The skills gap is not at the graduate level, it’s in the boardroom
• We have to be careful what messages we give to the public. They must have confidence that waste is being handled properly
• It is preferable to have behaviour change at the top of the hierarchy (ie waste prevention) rather than lower down
• More producer responsibility is a key message to get across
• Centralised communications campaigns do not always work as they can be viewed as the Government preaching.

Annual Presidential Dinner
Nearly 200 guests from right across the waste sector attended the Annual Presidential Dinner on 28 February.

CIWM president Mike Philpott highlighted the important changes being made in the UK in relation to waste management:

‘In waste and resource management in 2006 I believe we can begin to feel that the hard work of many is paying off, we have turned a major corner, and we should no longer be stigmatised as the ‘dirty man of Europe.

‘There are still those in Europe who think this. I was attending the Dutch waste management conference in Alkmaar in November and one of the speakers remarked that the UK was still the country of landfill and so far behind the rest of Europe. It was quite a moment when one of his colleagues stopped him and said ‘no, you are wrong, I have just come back from the LARAC conference and there is so much going on in the UK that we can learn from them!’

What is more, during my presidential year, I have been able to see for myself. As well as visits on behalf of the Institution, I have been seeing the very best local authorities in action as special advisor to the Beacon Council scheme. It has shown me just what a revolution this industry is going through.

‘So much is changing: new technologies such as I saw at the Cleanaway MRF in Greenwich, new players such as Australian company Global Renewables working with Lancashire County Council; and new funding through WRAP and WIP and others. There are new initiatives on the legislative front; our old friend the definition of waste, the role of producer responsibility, and changes in how regulation operates.

Mike Philpott welcomed the words of the Waste Strategy consultation review on energy from waste. ‘We do believe that energy from waste is an essential element of waste management, climate change and energy policy. We see it being used only for residual waste, after prevention, reuse and recycling; we do not believe it has to prejudice recycling opportunities. Indeed, our evidence for our recent study of practice in Europe shows that strong recycling performance can go hand in hand with energy from waste.

He also highlighted the role of the Institution in helping to deliver the kind of change needed in the UK to meet Waste Strategies, European legislation and achieve sustainable waste management policy. This included working to develop and communicate best practice; working to help individuals develop the new skills today’s waste managers require; seeking to be influential in promoting standards that protect the environment; acting as a hub where information can come in and out and where the voice of waste management professionals can be heard.

The special guest speaker at the dinner was Tim Smit, co-founder and chief executive of the Eden Project, who tackled the issue of setting yourself challenges. Eden began as a dream in 1995 and opened its doors to the public in 2000, since when more than 6 million people have come to see what was once a sterile pit turned into a cradle of life containing world-class horticulture.