Date of Conference
22 October 2019
Speakers
- Anna Bright and Tom Hendy, Sustainability West Midlands
- Chris Mills, Waste and Resources Action Partnership
- Viktoryia Nestsarava, Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association
- Neil Corrigal, Severn Trent Green Power
- Nik Spencer, Heru
- Maria Warner, Oxford City
- Jennie Probert, Three Rivers District Council
All presentations are available to download at the bottom of this page!
Purpose of the presentations
This was the second network event ran for the 2019 financial year, encouraging all members of our networks and other interested parties. We were exploring the wider impacts of food waste management, understanding what the latest strategy tells us and how we can learn from existing work in this area. The first speaker we heard from was Chris Mills from the Waste and Resources Action Partnership (WRAP). Chris gave a great presentation informing us on the Resources and Waste Strategy, the presentation left us with a far better understanding of what the strategy will mean in real terms for local authorities and businesses across the country. Beyond this, Chris informed us on what opportunities exist for organisations to improve their performance around food and garden waste. Following WRAP, we heard from Viktoryia Nestsarava from the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association. Viktoryia delivered a presentation exploring the wider impact of the climate emergency in the UK and what Net Zero targets. On top of this we heard about the benefits of taking up Anaerobic Digestion as an alternative route to disposing of organic waste. ADBA is a membership organisation, learn more about what they do and how you can get involved. Severn Trent then gave us a presentation all about the work they are doing. Some absolutely fascinating information came out, as well as seeing a day in the life of one of their waste sites. Being able to see the high level complexity involved in their waste segregation system raised a few eyebrows and even more questions from people not quite believing how well this works! Following Severn Trent we heard from Nik Spencer at HERU. This presentation was in many ways different to those we heard previous. Nik outlined the innovative new product that his team have been developing that aims to disrupt the conventional waste disposal system. The HERU would work to replace kerbside collection and replace it with in the home incineration, producing renewable gas and bio-char for energy. This created quite a buzz in the room with some people cautious and others eager to learn more. We then heard two fantastic case studies from local authorities and what work they are currently undertaking to manage their organic waste. Jennie Probert from Three Rivers District Council and Maria Warner from Oxford City created an atmosphere for curiosity for the rest of us in the room. They enabled us to understand what had worked well and not so well for them in the past, which was great as it allowed for an easy comparison with the other solutions we heard previously. We finished the day with a question panel for all our speakers. Unfortunately we had to cut it off with questions still to be asked, but lunch was served! The atmosphere of curiosity continued into the networking lunch with a buzz of questions flowing around the room.
Feedback
100% of delegates providing feedback rated Air Quality: Breathing Our Last as excellent or good in terms of organisation and again, 100% did so on content. Feedback included: “Great day… thank you!” “The HERU presentation was amazing!” “Good variety of talks” “Good range of speakers, thank you” “Good variety, nice to see some innovation!”
Next Steps
We will be hoping to continue this conversation with everyone who is interested in doing so and will be developing more events that will spark your interest! Please join us at our Annual Conference in December as well as our upcoming events throughout 2020!
Contact Information
For more information contact enquiries@swm.org.uk or call 0121 237 5890.
Downloads
WRAP Presentation – Chris MillsADBA Presentation – Viktoryia NestsaravaSevern Trent Presentation – Neil CorrigallHERU Presentation – Nik SpencerOxford Presentation – Maria WarnerThree Rivers District Council Presentation – Jennie ProbertAcknowledgements
SWM is very grateful for the support of all delegates and exhibitors…
- Severn Trent Green Power
- Waste and Resources Action Partnership
- Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association
- HERU
- Oxford City
- Three Rivers District Council