OPINION: We’ve seen it happen time and again – legislative changes are announced, deadlines are set, the industry debates the implications… and then, as the change looms, a mad scramble ensues.
For waste businesses, change has become the only constant – from shifting regulations, to emerging sustainability targets and evolving customer expectations. Staying ahead is no easy feat. Leave it to the last minute, and there’s no time to explore, trial, or uncover the best value.
What’s needed is what I call a waste innovation mindset. At its core, it builds on circular economy principles, seeing waste as a resource rather than a disposal problem. But it goes further. It’s also about piquing curiosity, experimentation, and bold problem-solving. It requires time and an appetite to question old ways, trial new solutions, uncover sustainable offtake routes, stabilise commercial outcomes, and, critically, engage with customers to understand their drivers, concerns, and needs.
Curiosity, creativity, sustainability, and problem-solving – these are the forces that will drive the industry forward, helping us rethink how we manage materials, energy, and environmental impact.
We’ve been on a mission to find and showcase waste innovators. Advetec’s recent Waste Summit, in partnership with Letsrecycle, brought many of them together. We showcased air-based separation technologies that enhance recycling performance and hydrothermal processes transforming plastic into valuable hydrocarbons. Plus, we discussed the widespread use of AI and “big data”, and a whole lot more. The summit highlighted businesses creating real alternatives to landfill and incineration – and the waste handlers implementing them, not just for compliance or profitability, but to meet customer and environmental demands.
One standout example is Go4Greener, a Derby-based waste management business about to use biotechnology to tackle one of the hardest-to-handle streams: offensive washroom waste. Even before the technology was onsite, they’d used their investment to secure new customers. As a business with a long history of innovation and growth, they knew the value of listening to their customers and, crucially, being different. News of their plan to divert thousands of tonnes of nappies, sanitary products, and hand towels from landfill and turn them into valuable resources as high-quality fuel, has spread across the industry and now, unsurprisingly, they’re being actively sought by customers in need of their help.
What this highlights is that innovation isn’t only for the biggest players, or for vanity. Nor is its value just in reducing waste or stabilising costs. Innovation also creates important new commercial opportunities for growth and delivers greener solutions to help all parts of the waste supply chain meet their own sustainability targets.
The message is clear: when the industry harnesses curiosity, the pace of change is quicker. When the industry adopts a waste innovation mindset, waste stops being a problem. And when the industry gets ahead of change, and uses time wisely, it can find better, more sustainable solutions to benefit business, customers and the planet.
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