LARAC announces 2010 conference programme

As LARAC is celebrating its 25th year and the conference celebrates its 20th year, this year's event is expected to be particularly special.

Speakers including Gunnel Klingberg, secretary general of Municipal Waste Europe, and Helene Roberts, head of packaging at Marks & Spencer, are among those to feature in the programme, which this year focuses on getting more for less.

With budgets being slashed, the theme will centre on reducing the impact of waste on the environment whilst exploring how local authorities can continue to hit waste and recycling targets and save costs.

A full conference programme can be found by clicking here: http://www.larac2010.co.uk/agenda.html

The LARAC Celebration Awards will be held at St George's Hall in Liverpool on Wednesday 3 November and will focus on the achievements of local authority recycling officers within the UK.

Award entries are now open and with a brand new category, Best Improved Recycling Rates, LARAC looks forward to honouring the best in the sector.

Joy Blizzard, chair of LARAC said: “Waste and recycling services are very visible to our residents but we know that nothing is immune to current financial pressures. This conference will be taking a long, hard and detailed look at how we can deliver cost-effective high recycling rates.

“From harnessing volunteers' power in your community, ensuring high capture from existing schemes to setting up joint collections with neighbouring authorities, the conference will explore a wide range of options available to hard-pressed councils.”

Support

UPM is the headline sponsor for the 2010 event.

Craig Robinson, head of sourcing for recovered paper at UPM, said: “We're extremely pleased to be able to support LARAC again this year. As a long term partner to local authorities across the UK, UPM has been at the forefront of delivering sustainable solutions for the recovery of paper.

“With national recognition for our environmental and sustainable development we are the leading recycling partner. We are currently in the middle of an exciting development phase which will bring us closer to local authorities than ever before in terms of our services and partnership.”

Registrations are now open for the 2010 LARAC conference and awards dinner. For more information about the event or entries for the awards go to the 2010 LARAC conference website http://www.larac2010.co.uk/

The conference is organised by letsrecycle.com, an Environment Media Group company.