Wastes and Resources: Look to the Future

Futuresource, a new event created in partnership between the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) and the Environmental Services Association (ESA), will launch this summer as “Europe’s sustainability
event”. Covering topics as diverse as air, energy and climate change to municipal waste solutions and waste and wastewater management. Futuresource (pronounced Future Resource) combines both a conference and exhibition over its three days at ExCeL in London (9-11 June), and builds on the organisations’ longstanding history of hosting such events.

The conference certainly offers something different, with both Tuesday and Wednesday seeing a series of head-to-head debates taking place, alongside a number of more traditional conference sessions covering such topics as communications, the industry’s service provision and the UK’s performance compared to its European counterparts. The head-to-head debates, meanwhile, will pitch some of the industry’s most knowledgeable and passionate experts – with polar opposite views – against one another to argue over issues of household waste; whether PFI is the way forward; and the benefits, or otherwise, of comingled recycling collections.

One of the most interesting sessions, however, concerns energy from waste and the role it has to play in the future of the waste and resource industry, putting a senior campaigner from Friends of the Earth in direct opposition with energy from waste supporter, and operator of such plants, SYSAV’s Håkan Rylander. Thursday’s sessions have a more practical and public-sector approach, covering topics from resource
management planning and enforcement issues, to fuels of the future and managing commercial and industrial wastes.

If it’s practical solutions you need, then there’s always the Futuresource exhibition to consider. Split into six sector zones: waste and water management; professional services; air, energy and climate change; street scene and facilities management; recycling and composting; and vehicles and plant, the exhibition will also play host to more than 40 FREE seminar sessions. The Information Hub will carry sessions from the likes
of the EA, Valpak, WRAP and Viridor, while the Communications Hub will focus on equipping visitors with key media skills and advising on how to make the most of the media in all its forms. The Transport Hub will
take on all vehicular issues while the Innovation Spotlight will highlight a range of municipal solutions, from
materials handling to low emissions street cleansing.

In terms of who you can expect to see at the exhibition, covering a vast 19,000m2, Veolia Environmental Services, Sita UK, Heil, Dennis Eagle, Taylors, WRAP, Capita Symonds, Energos, Sterecycle, Enpure, Valpak and MeWa Recycling are among the 250-plus exhibitors already confirmed, with more exhibitors being added every week. The Futuresource website will bring you news of their plans for the event nearer the date. To book your place at the Futuresource conference, or to pre-register free for the exhibition and receive a comprehensive Event Preview, see further details of the free seminar sessions and a full list of exhibitors across all six zones, visit www.futuresourceuk.com