The first day of the conference, which has moved to a fresh venue for 2009 at Liverpool's Arena Convention Centre, will also hear from American environmentalist David Refkin who is a former president of America's National Recycling Corporation and is a leading expert on paper sustainability and issues surrounding rainforests.
Rainforest
Mr Refkin, who in 2004 won the Rainforest Alliance Green Globe Award for leadership in forest certification, will be looking at some of the developments in sustainability and recycling in the US since President Obama came to office.
The event, which has paper recycler UPM as its partner, will be opened by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool and with 2009 being Liverpool's Year of the Environment, developments in the city and its programme for recycling will form one of a wide range of workshops on the first day of the two-day event, which runs from October 7-8 2009. 
Technologies
Other exciting elements of day one include an interactive session where speakers will be under fire as they tackle the key question: “Are technologies crowding out recycling?”
Whilst speakers such as Friends of the Earth will be arguing “yes” in answer to this, others including Energos and a local authority have a different perspective!
And on the afternoon of day one the niche seminars will include sessions on health & safety concerns over bioaerosols, waste prevention and zero-waste places.
Awards
On the evening of day one, the LARAC Awards will be held.
This year the Awards are focusing on local authorities work and there are five categories: Best Communications Campaign of the Year; Best Partnership Award (target success) sponsored by Viridor; Best Regional Project / Initiative, sponsored by Valpak; Best Waste Minimisation or Prevention Project; and Recycling Officer of the Year, sponsored by Yell.
Day Two's agenda promises to be just as interactive and informative.
Speakers from RecycleBank and Tesco will open the morning session with presentations on how to improve recycling rates and the retailer's perspective on recycling, the environment and packaging minimisation.
And, delegates can learn how a high-achieving council reached its impressive rates of recycling and later speakers will get down to the very basics – addressing the core issues such as cost and the practicalities of recycling collections.
Gala dinner
The LARAC Celebrations Awards which will take place at the Gala Dinner on the first night of conference, are to be hosted by the dry-witted Quentin Wilson of Top Gear.
LARAC chair Joy Blizzard said: “We are keen to celebrate all the fantastic work our members are doing out there – so the Celebration Awards closely reflect the particular skills displayed by local authority officers all over the country, covering communications, partnership work with the third or private sectors, co-operative cross-boundary projects, waste minimisation and waste prevention projects, and of course the enthusiasm and flair exhibited by many recycling officers.”
Ms Blizzard added: “Do have a close look at the categories and see how many you can put yourselves/your projects/others in for. Nominate those who have shown creativity in their particular field.”
Conference partner
Craig Robinson, UK head of recovered paper resource management for conference partner UPM, said: “As a world leader in paper recycling UPM is delighted to be a part of LARAC 2009. As a long term partner in paper recycling, UPM works closely with a large number of local authorities, purchasing recovered fibre for its UPM Shotton newsprint mill in North Wales.” 
Mr Robinson added: “We are committed to the UK, local authority partnerships and innovative solutions. Part of a global business, UPM Shotton has made significant investments into renewable energy, recycling residues from the paper making process and converting this into energy and steam for use on site.
“This has enabled the paper mill to reduce its CO2 emissions by 100,000 tonnes annually. We look forward to seeing all the delegates at LARAC 2009 and sharing future sucesses together.
Conference details
The conference programme and event is being organised this year by letsrecycle.com as part of the Environment Media Group. Online booking for the event is now open and delegates are asked to register as soon as possible to help secure accommodation.
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