With waste management high on the agenda in boardrooms throughout the country, this year’s RWM in partnership with CIWM 2012 event will place special attention on the issues facing the retail sector.
FROM food waste to finance, packaging to pallet recycling, and energy-from-waste to environmental compliance, this year’s event will, say organisers, provide answers to many of the retail sector’s waste and resource efficiency challenges.
Being held at the NEC Birmingham September 11-13, the show will bring together around 700 companies and 100 expert speakers, including Government ministers and speakers from some of the UK’s biggest retail names.
The event is the result of the merger in 2010 of the i2i Events Group’s (formerly Emap) RWM exhibition and CIWM and ESA’s Futuresource show and has become the major annual gathering for the resource and waste management industry.
“Waste is firmly on the boardroom agenda,” said Steve Lee, chief executive of CIWM. “It is not only a bottom line issue but increasingly has a significant impact on brand reputation and corporate image. This year, the show is expected to attract around 14,000 visitors looking for solutions to help reduce waste, increase recycling and extract value from waste in the form of energy – all of which will directly enhance competitiveness in a tough marketplace.”
As well as a line-up of exhibitors featuring the country’s leading private waste contractors, technology specialists, equipment suppliers and consultants, visitors will find organisations such as WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) on hand to provide information on resource efficiency. WRAP’s Courtauld Commitment voluntary agreement with the food and grocery industry is helping to improve resource efficiency and reduce the wider environmental impact of the sector throughout the supply chain.
Two new features this year are designed to help visitors better understand the environmental, economic and ethical benefits that can achieved by segregating and recycling. Bringing all the key materials associations together under one roof for the first time, the Materials Village will give visitors access to advice on recycling and reprocessing different waste streams.
Companies already lined up include the Resource Association, the British Metals Recycling Association, Alupro, Confederation of Paper Industries, British Glass, the Textile Recycling Association and the Association For Organics Recycling.
Elsewhere, a Social Enterprise Zone recognises the role of third sector organisations and the services they can provide. Representatives from the Community Resource Network, REalliance, Create UK, Scrapstores UK, and Rehab Recycle will provide public and private sector visitors with the opportunity to forge partnerships.
The event will also provide more than 90 CPD-accredited seminar sessions led by expert speakers across six seminar theatres. A spokesman for the organisers said: “The speaker line-up in the Leader’s Theatre highlights the growing importance of resources and waste on the political agenda, with a number of key ministers and politicians taking the platform.”
On day one, the importance of diverting food waste from landfill will be one of the key messages from former environment secretary John Gummer, now Lord Deben, who chairs a new visionary panel on food waste. Shadow waste minister Gavin Shuker will be giving a keynote speech on day two looking at how government can support industry in tackling major waste challenges.
Defra’s head of waste strategy and regulation, Richard Pullen, will outline latest waste policy developments and there also will be a debate on recycling targets and markets, exploring whether the current system works, how to improve public participation and whether the UK should move to carbon to carbon rather than weight-based targets.
With tailored communications advice and best practice available at the Sauce Consultancy Communications Hub, free one-to-one advice on legal and other business issues in the Professional Services Clinic, and other features including an Innovation Trail and guided technical tours, the show will provide valuable information for waste and resource management requirements.
And for professionals with a wider sustainability remit, RWM in partnership with CIWM will once again be co-located with the Energy Event and a new Renewables Event focusing on on-site energy generation.
