What is the secret to PFI success? How can Facebook and Twitter encourage your residents to recycle more? How do you conquer the planning process to minimise delay and achieve a cost effective result? Are macerators the answer to food waste, and what’s the best policy for handling radioactive waste?

With an entire seminar theatre dedicated to local authority issues, and over 500 exhibiting companies, RWM will provide public sector visitors with solutions to the most pressing issues on the recycling agenda.

RWM’s Local Authority Seminar Theatre, supported by the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee, will feature 12 free expert-led sessions over three days. In 2009 these included a number of council case studies and professional advice from the Environment Agency, Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), BREW Centre for Local Authorities and Nuclear Legacy Advisory Forum (NuLeAF).

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See below for details of what happened at the 2009 exhibition.

Day One covered planning, finance and procurement.

• A PFI success story will be shared by Paul Jones, head of waste management at Northumberland County Council;
• Philip Russell, head of wastes management at West Sussex County Council will talk about alternative funding mechanisms and
• Bernard Warr, head of waste management at Cambridgeshire County Council will lead a session on the planning process.
• Waste management academic Dr Adam Read, currently waste management and resource efficiency practice manager for AEA, will suggest some new ways to approach procurement. Adam has worked with the UK Government on a range of local waste strategy and service delivery projects and provided industry training materials on treatment technologies and sustainable waste management for local authorities.

Day Two looked at hazardous waste and Waste Electrical Electronic Equipment with a speaker line-up which includes

• Bob McIntyre, national technical advisor on hazardous waste at the Environment Agency,
• Gerrard Fisher, programme manager for sustainable products at WRAP and
• Fred Barker, executive director for NuLeAF 

Food waste and collaborative working was explored on the final day of RWM

• Steve Read, managing director of the Somerset Waste Partnership will examine the full potential of composting

The programme also featured Helen House, projects co-ordinator for BREW Centre for Local Authorities and Michael Bennett, managing director of Pelican PR.

With over 500 exhibiting companies, a visit to RWM also provides a convenient opportunity to find new suppliers and source the latest products and services. Whether you are looking for hire vehicles, recycling banks and bins or even a new waste management contractor, the indoor and outdoor exhibition areas, together with a new networking zone ensure you will return to your council with a wealth of new contacts. To give you a flavour, in 2009:

•    Alupro, the not for profit industry organisation which promotes the collection of aluminium packaging through local authority kerbside and bring systems will be telling visitors about a new initiative to increase the number of local authorities collecting clean aluminium foil trays and pie cases from 58% to 70%.

•    Smurfit Kappa Recycling will be explaining how its mixed paper grade service can help to drive up recycling rates. The company recycles all types of cardboard and paper (including packaging and directories) from council kerbside collections and bring banks to reprocess at its paper mills.

•    SSI Schaefer will be exhibiting their new lid for their wheeled bins - the ergolid. This lid is designed for maximum ease of opening as well as convenient and quick colour coding for the different recyclable waste streams.

•    Bin refurbishment specialists Plas-tac LLP will be demonstrating its new environmentally-friendly bin-washing service which uses a self-contained water tank to filter waste water and then re-use it.

•    Weir & Carmichael will be exhibiting its new range of wheeled bins and kerbside boxes, together with recycling bags for household and green waste, kitchen caddies and a 47 litre organics collector.

•    Sentinel Systems will be explaining how its ultrasonic reversing aids and prevent accidents.