The annual LARAC Scotland Conference took place just outside Glasgow this year in a new venue and a new format. Over 70 delegates attended with local authorities from across Scotland along with other representatives from the wider waste industry. The event started with the Scottish Government outlining their latest policy drives and in particular the work on consistent collection systems and the Collections Charter that has been drawn up, a common theme across the whole UK at the moment. This was followed by SEPA and a look at the MRF regulations and how they intend to approach them, again showing an inclusive approach to regulation that they have done at previous LARAC events. Next was a change from the programme in previous years as all delegates boarded minibuses for the short trip to event sponsor William Tracy site to look at how they operate a wide variety of different recycling and treatment processes. These included wood recycling, glass recycling and the more traditional MRF for household waste.
Back at the conference venue and the programme oved on to look at communications in general and ten a case study from London Borough Hackney on their food waste collections that generated a lot of debate during the final question and answer session of the morning.
The afternoon saw Zero Waste Scotland outline their work and the support they provide to local authorities before an interesting presentation on workforce health programmes that have been run by NHS Grampian The final session was another local authority case study, this time from Aberdeen City Council on all aspects of their recycling services and their push to top the table in Scotland. The feedback from the day was very positive and showed that the event was even more successful than the previous year. This was made possible by event partner William Tracy and event sponsors Big Belly, Craemer and GJF Fabrications who all had stands on the day.
The presentations from the day are available in the Members' area of our website. Login with your membership number and password.
