Follow our up-to-the-minute coverage throughout all three days of the show for highlights from the conference programme, exclusive product launches, interviews with industry leaders and more.
The show is expected to attract more than 13,000 visitors with more than 600 businesses and organisations exhibiting.
Refresh this page for the latest updates.
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15 September
All the latest news and announcements from day two of the RWM Conference & Exhibition in Birmingham. Refresh this page regularly for updates.
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14.35 EAC chair Mary Creagh has warned that environmental legislation could be among the areas most affected by Brexit, with the EU having driven much of the UK’s existing environmental laws.
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14.15 Environment Audit Committee chair and Labour MP Mary Creagh, deputy Green Party leader Amelia Womack and Dr Alan Whitehead are in-conversation on waste policy and Brexit at the Circular Economy Connect Theatre.
Despite being late in the day, it is a packed crowd.
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14.00 The exhibition is slowly winding down, but the conference programme still has plenty to offer. Highlights from the day so far include the future of local authority waste services and teckal exempt companies.
@HumairaPilki pleasure being able to talk rubbish @RWM_with_CIWM #RWM16 great seminar programme all round
— Lee Marshall (@RecyclerLee) September 15, 2016
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10.00 Good morning from the third and final day of RWM 2016 here at Birmingham’s NEC.
Despite a foggy start to the day, and a few cloudy heads after last night’s gala dinner, the halls are filling up rapidly.
Join us throughout the day for more live news and coverage.
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14 September
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AMCS Group acquires Wastedge UK
16.30 AMCS Group, supplier of software and vehicle technology for the waste and recycling industry, has acquired all rights to Wastedge software products and services in the UK.
The Group announced the agreement with Twisted Fish Ltd—the UK reseller of GMT’s Wastedge product—earlier this week.
Under the terms of this agreement, AMCS has taken over the company name Wastedge Ltd and all reseller rights, sales and support for Wastedge products and services.
Following the acquisition of GMT in the Netherlands in August, AMCS Group became the global owner of the GMT’s Wastedge software products.
Jimmy Martin, chief executive of AMCS, said: “I would like to welcome Wastedge customers to the AMCS group in the UK joining over 150 existing customers served by our offices in Banbury and Glasgow. It’s business as usual but with more products and services to choose from.”
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Egbert Taylor Group
15.00 We have been catching up with Egbert Taylor Group, which says it is enjoying a period of growth as UK councils from Brighton to Edinburgh continue to trial it’s range of Bigbelly bins.
Mark Jenkins, UK sales director at Taylor, told letsrecycle.com the Group now comprises five companies with the direction of the business moving from manufacturing to “tech”.
The Group has recently set up a Base in Dubai and has in the last year expanded its range of bins to customers in Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.
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Viridor survey reveals ‘dissatisfaction’ with UK recycling
14.50 Viridor has today released a Recycling Index for 2016, revealing a dissatisfaction among consumers with current UK recycling systems.
The Index, based on a survey of 1,500 people conducted across the UK in August 2016 and provides an overview of public attitudes to recycling including key regional differences.
The survey found that UK consumers believe more can be recycled but are frustrated by what they can and can’t recycle, with 66% of people surveyed frustrated about not having enough educational materials available on recycling.
And, 78% are frustrated that different councils recycle different things, while 63% of consumers are frustrated that different councils collect waste in different ways.
Dan Cooke, director of communications and external affairs at Viridor, commented: “Viridor believes that greater transparency in the recycling and waste sector is crucial to rebuilding confidence with UK consumers to support them with recycling.”
Read the full story on letsrecycle.com
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14.00 “This year there have been 13% more searches for waste management than last year…” Google’s Wim Wauters tells the Circular Economy Connect Theatre – indicating an upsurge in interest in the sector.
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Timberpak Pearce Ltd
13.43 More now on the joint venture between Timberpak and Pearce Recycling Ltd, which will see the two businesses come together to provide a “secure” wood recycling outlet in the South East.
From a base in St Albans, Hertfordshire, Timberpak Pearce Ltd will collect waste wood from industrial users and civic amenity sites as well as accepting direct deliveries from customers.
Timberpak is a sister company of major chipboard manufacturer EGGER UK, and Pearce Recycling has already been supplying recycled wood fibre derived from its municipal contracts in Hertfordshire to EGGER’s Hexham and Barony plants for more than 12 years.
The new partnership strengthens Timberpak’s position in the south, adding to its three existing facilities in Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland. The deal will also allow it to source 90% of EGGER’s waste wood requirement, while enabling Pearce to assure its local authority customers that their wood fraction is being recycled.
Timberpak director Mark Hayton said: “This joint venture with Pearce Group means we now have the ability to process, across the four sites, a total of 375,000 tonnes of recycled wood per annum.”
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Future of RDF
11.30 Over at the Energy from Waste Theatre, industry experts are discussing if the refuse derived fuel (RDF) export bubble will soon burst.
Andy Hill, market development director at Suez, says exports of SRF has a “significantly more positive future” due to emerging demand in Europe.
Pandora Rene of the Environment Agency agrees. “We are not there to interfere with markets but we will ensure the waste hierarchy is complied with,” she adds.
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WRAP’s Gover and Crichton talk consistency
11.10 Yesterday WRAP launched the recycling collection consistency framework, aimed at encouraging ‘harmonisation’ in recycling services across England.
We spoke to WRAP’s chief executive Marcus Gover and head of resources Linda Crichton for more information on the framework.
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Welcome back
10.30 The sun is shining over Birmingham, and delegates are arriving for day two of RWM.
Highlights from the conference programme today include discussions on extended producer responsibility and Brexit.
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13 September
All the latest news and announcements from day one of the RWM Conference & Exhibition in Birmingham. Refresh this page regularly for updates.
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Wrapping up
17.20 That’s all for our coverage from day one of RWM 2016. Join us again tomorrow for more live coverage from from Birmingham’s NEC.
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Wrapping up
17.15 A hot, sunny English day can only mean one thing – rain later. And the NEC and the area around the airport were awash at 5pm as a violent storm struck with loud thunder and lightning. Delegates queued for buses rather than walking back to the car parks.
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RWM: The weird and the wonderful
16.10 Demonstrating the quirkier things that can be done with waste, Mick Davies’ sculpture ‘Lobster’ is made entirely from used bicycle tyres.
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Wood recycling venture
15.55 Wood recycler Timberpak and Pearce Recycling have announced an ‘exciting’ joint venture at RWM today.
Visit letsrecycle.com tomorrow for the full story.
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Consistent messages
15.15 WRAP’s recycling consistency framework is among the hot topics for discussion at RWM 2016 day one, with plenty of debate over the favoured collection systems.
DS Smith Recycling general manager, Peter Clayson, has backed the ‘two-stream’ option. He said: “While understanding the limitations that some local authority recycling collections have, we would always promote the two-stream option with the separate collection of fibres and food waste. This will provide the business with the quality recyclate necessary for reprocessing and manufacturing our cardboard boxes.”
ESA’s executive director, Jacob Hayler, added: “Greater consistency in household collections clearly has the potential to boost recycling by making it easier for households and also to save councils money by facilitating more joint working. ESA supports both of these outcomes and looks forward to engaging with WRAP and Defra as they build on this initial framework.”
On Twitter, LARAC chief executive Lee Marshall has offered a wry assessment of the different approaches to consistency taken by the UK’s governments.
So England has a Framework, Wales a Blueprint and Scotland a Charter. Shows how tricky consistency is? #wastegeek #rwm16
— Lee Marshall (@RecyclerLee) 13 September 2016
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Why does waste matter?
14.40 letsrecycle.com has also caught up with Mike Webster, founder of the charity Waste Aid UK.
Mr Webster is asking people visiting his stand (4H70) to tell him why waste matters in today’s world.
He also offered an update on the work that the 18-month-old charity has done to date, including continuing its efforts to encourage safe disposal practices in the Gambia following a successful summer of fundraising.
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Agency offers reassurance over fire plans
14.30 letsrecycle.com editor Steve Eminton has been to the Local Authority Theatre where the Environment Agency has offered an update on Fire Prevention Plans. He filed the following report:
The recycling industry won some reassurances over fire prevention plans today, with the environment agency highlighting that they would approach the four hour burn limit with some flexibility.
Agency officials James Finch and John McCarthy told delegates that some areas of the FPP were not controversial, such as reducing the frequency of fires and stopping them spreading.
They said they understood the concerns from some in the sector that four hour burn time could be difficult to achieve.
Mr McCarthy said: “This is very much an aim, not an absolute deadline that you will be held to account over.”
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letsrecycle.com at RWM
14.10 The letsrecycle.com team is out in force at RWM this year.
Visit us at 4F48-G49.
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Export quality warning
12.30 The Recycling Association has today launched its ‘Quality First’ campaign, aimed at highlighting the importance of material quality in exports of recyclable material.
The Association’s chief executive Simon Ellin has warned that buyers in markets could look to other sources of material if quality of secondary commodities from the UK is not addressed.
He said: “We are increasingly seeing that Chinese buyers, other export destinations and even UK mills are choosy about where they buy material. They have choices that they did not have before and for the Chinese this includes their increasingly developing domestic market.”
Mr Ellin is due to take part in a panel debate, ‘Future-proofing the recycling sector – how can the sector stay competitive with ‘virgin materials?’ on the Local Authority Theatre at 14.30 today.
The Recycling Association team will also be on hand at stand 4G13 throughout the three-day show to discuss the campaign.
Read our full report on the ‘Quality First’ campaign, here.
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Recycling league table
12.00 ICYMI our big story from yesterday revealed that some of England’s top recycling councils had seen their recycling rates fall. A drop in the overall volume of garden waste collected from householders and increased scrutiny on the quality of recyclable materials are thought to have been behind the decrease in some cases.
Green waste and a quality squeeze are probably behind the fall in recycling at some of the top recycling councils – https://t.co/eTW523uizg
— Steve Eminton (@steveeminton) September 12, 2016
An interesting snapshot of what’s happening out there in local government. Maybe time to be ‘prescriptive’? https://t.co/wUJPpWwolS
— Tom Goulding (@TPGoulding) September 12, 2016
More on that story here.
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Blue skies overhead
11.40 Visitors are continuing to pour into the NEC, and they are being greeted by a familiar sight on entrance.
Doesn’t this Grundon RCV look resplendent in the sunshine?
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Consistency Framework
11.30 A big announcement from the Local Authority Theatre, where WRAP’s Linda Crichton has unveiled details of the Recycling Collection Consistency Framework.
Linda Crichton just announced new framework for greater consistency. Follow #consistentrecycling 4 more info #RWM16 pic.twitter.com/qBdnKJ5dwI
— WRAP (@WRAP_UK) 13 September 2016
The Framework sets out three options for recycling and waste collections designed to encourage consistency among local authorities on recycling collections.
Read our full coverage on the Consistency Framework here.
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Recycle Week
11.00 Not only is it RWM 2016 this week, but the national recycling communications campaign-week Recycle Week is also taking place. The 2016 theme is ‘The Unusual Suspects’, highlighting some of the materials that householders often forget to recycle such as shampoo or detergent bottles. Watch the following video for more information.
We also reported yesterday on some of the initiatives councils across the country are running to raise awareness of recycling during Recycle Week 2016.
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Doors open
09:40 Visitors are on-site and the doors have opened.
The doors have now opened! Hope you enjoy your day at #RWM16 pic.twitter.com/E9LEBVjz7A
— RWM 2016 (@RWM_with_CIWM) 13 September 2016
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Circular economy could add billions to UK industry, SUEZ claims
09.40 With RWM day one expected to be a busy day for announcements from the waste sector, SUEZ has this morning published details of a report which claims that up to £9 billion could be added to the UK economy by integrating circular economy principles into the country’s industrial strategy.
Due to be launched at RWM today (13 September), the report was commissioned by SUEZ and authored by Eunomia Research & Consulting.
Following the EU referendum earlier this year, the report assesses the long-term future for the recycling and waste management industry, proposing a series of policy measures aimed at the newly-formed Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) as it considers how to reinvigorate the UK’s industry.
The report estimates that £9 billion could be added to the UK’s economy by 2030 if the Government adopts an ambitious path of policy and legislative measures aimed at integrating resource conservation into its industrial strategy.
The report has called on BEIS to work with Treasury and Defra to bring about a system of incentives and taxation to stimulate behavioural change towards the use and reuse of materials.
David Palmer-Jones, chief executive of SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, said: “It is time for a home-grown, forward-looking strategic framework for the UK waste and resource management industry and our report, the first of its kind since the vote on Brexit, should provide the newly created Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) with a way forward to capture some of the £9 billion of value that can be unlocked and put back into the UK domestic economy.”
Mr Palmer-Jones will be officially launching the report during his presentation at the Circular Economy Connect Theatre at 11am this morning.
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Resource Association: “Low level of information about recycling”
09.30 The Resource Association has released the results of new public opinion research which it said shows the “continued low level of information the public have about what happens to their recycling”.
But, more than half the people surveyed said that knowing more about where their recycled materials went it would make no difference to their willingness to recycle or not.
The Association has long argued that the public want to know where their recycled materials go and said the survey’s results showed the public “hunger for more and better information”.
In a survey of English residents conducted for the Resource Association by ICM Unlimited, 77% were found not to know where their recycling goes once it has been collected. While two thirds said there should be more information available, 53% of people said more information would make no difference to their recycling.
Resource Association Chief Executive Ray Georgeson said: “Better information and transparency is a low cost intervention that has the potential to significantly uplift recycling rates by being more directly informative about what actually happens and where it goes, and reducing the potential for public inaction through disinterest or even cynicism about the result of their recycling collection efforts. This is especially true of younger people who indicate clearly their interest in better information and yet are often the least committed recyclers.”
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Day One
09.20 Good morning and thanks for tuning in to our live coverage of RWM 2016.
The exhibition will shortly open its doors to visitors, with many thousands expected to attend the show across its three days.
Stay tuned for updates from our team at Birmingham’s NEC.
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