RECOUP return to RWM 13-14 Sept 2023

The leading event for waste, recycling, and resource professionals.

RECOUP will once again be attending the Resource & Waste Management Expo (RWM), the premier event for professionals working in the recycling, resource, waste, and broader environmental services industry. Formerly known as RWM & Letsrecycle Live, RWM offers an unparalleled platform to connect with like-minded professionals, learn about the latest industry trends, and drive positive environmental change through sustainable resource management.

The event will take centre stage at the NEC on 13-14 September as part of the wider Environmental Services & Solutions Expo (ESS) – forming one of Europe’s premier events dedicated to the environment and environmental services.

In recent years, a series of environmental B2B events have united under one roof at the NEC, giving rise to the ESS Expo. ESS now forms the ‘umbrella’ event for the following renowned exhibitions:

•          RWM (Resource & Waste Management Expo)

•          EFD (Energy, Fuels & Decarbonisation Expo)

•          FWM (Flood & Water Management Expo)

•          CLR (Contamination & Land Remediation Expo)

RWM invites participants to engage in critical discussions, explore ground-breaking green technologies, and to utilise the event as an international springboard for innovative waste and resource solutions that address the world’s environmental challenges. The event is organised in collaboration with industry-leading organisations such as the Chartered Institute of Wastes Management, Environmental Services Association, and letsrecycle.com.

In 2022, over 9000 professionals gathered to see industry innovation and hear updates from 200+ expert speakers. The event spans 3 exhibition halls and a large outdoor area for equipment, machinery, and vehicle demonstrations.

As the United Kingdom’s top meeting place for waste and recycling activities, in addition to land, air, energy and water services through the co-located shows, it is unmissable for anyone working with or selling into Europe.

One FREE ticket gains you access to all events.

Date: 13-14 September 2023
Venue: NEC, Birmingham
Halls: 17, 18, 19 & 10,000m2 outside area
Opening Times: 09.30 – 17.00

Register free and find out more: https://hubs.la/Q01P7SX10

RECOUP calls for interventions to increase transparency of marine plastic programmes

Plastics resource efficiency and recycling charity, RECOUP, has released its new River and Ocean Plastics Collection and Recycling Programmes Report. This report, available to RECOUP members, found that inconsistency and ambiguity in language and operations, risk undermining programme efforts to achieve the best results in removing plastic waste from marine environments.

The report analysed 30 global marine programmes, including a mixture of collection schemes, technical innovators, and those that manufacture equipment and provide software to collect material and store data.

Tom McBeth, Policy & Infrastructure Projects Manager at RECOUP comments: “Findings from the report showed significant variation across the programmes we analysed, ranging from differences in definitions and language used, materials targeted, environments collected from, and the transparency around the process and end destination of the material.”

On the consistency of language used to describe the material captured by these programmes, Tom added: “Inconsistency of language is a concern, with some programmes using wording around ‘ocean bound plastic’ to mean material ‘likely to enter waterways within 50km of open water’.  This would mean that water entering any river in the UK would meet such a definition.”

As interest in the sector grows, packaging producers are increasingly seeking ways to incorporate recycled plastics, and those collected from the natural environment, into new packaging and products.  It is therefore vital that standards are in place to ensure consistent, evidence-based results.

In order for marine programmes and their supporters to have the best opportunities to do this and achieve the best environmental outcomes, RECOUP has developed five key interventions that would increase the transparency and reduce confusion around marine programmes and their operations:

1. Widely understood definitions relating to marine programmes are implemented.
2. Creditable auditing takes place of the programmes and the material they collect.
3. Programmes comply with international legislation.
4. Programmes fully disclose information about the collection and management of material.
5. More research and development of the technological requirements and infrastructure needed to recycle collected material effectively.

The River and Ocean Plastics Collection and Recycling Programmes report is available to RECOUP members to download from its website.

RECOUP report estimates over 120k tonnes of plastics available for recycling from UK Household Waste Recycling Centres

Plastics resource efficiency and recycling charity, RECOUP, has released its 2023 Plastics Management and Recycling at Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) in the UK report, finding a significant quantity of plastics going unrecycled.

The report found that over 120,000 tonnes of rigid and hard plastics are disposed of at HWRCs in the UK annually, almost 3kg per household, but that little of this is recycled. This amounts to as much as £13mil of council and waste management company funds paying taxes and gate fees for disposal of this material.

Tom McBeth, Policy & Infrastructure Projects Manager comments: “Whilst known to be more difficult to process, of lower value and more highly contaminated than kerbside material, plastics collected at HWRCs offer an opportunity to capture more previously unrecycled material as recycling targets continue to grow. This, combined with increased demand for recycling and recyclate through various policies and legislation, means that there is a need for more materials to be captured and recycled, particularly domestically.”

As part of the report, RECOUP has developed a number of recommendations and interventions that would help enable plastic disposed of at HWRCs to fit into circular economy models, as well as potential steps to build on this research further.

These recommendations include:

• Creating a robust dataset relating to material captured at HWRCs.
• Better understanding the journey of this material from collection to its final destination.
• Identifying the requirements for greater investment in UK infrastructure to sort and reprocess traditionally ‘hard to recycle’ plastics.
• Develop re-use infrastructure to remove items being disposed of as waste in instances where they can be recovered.

The Plastics Management and Recycling at Household Waste Recycling Centres in the UK report is available for RECOUP members to download from its website.

For more information about this report please contact:

Tom McBeth, Policy & Infrastructure Projects Manager  tom.mcbeth@recoup.org  01733 390021

Steve Morgan, Head of Policy & Infrastructure  steve.morgan@recoup.org  01733 390021