Viridor brings together organisations for circular economy conference

Viridor has outlined its vision for a regional collaboration which would give all plastic waste a recycling solution at an event in Bristol.

The Rubbish to Resource conference brought together a wide range of industry experts, campaigners, journalists, local authorities, and businesses in order to discuss and debate how to create a truly circular economy in the South West and South Wales.

The collaboration has been designed to help the region show leadership and take responsibility for all the plastic consumed in the area.

Countryfile presenter Tom Heap, who was a speaker at the event, said: “The downfall of plastic is when we let the public come up with the solutions themselves. I think it’ll be the industry itself as well as designers and retailers who find those answers.”

“It think plastic isn’t evil, but letting it escape into the environment is.”

“Not using plastic where it isn’t necessary is certainly part of that and substitution is part of the solution, but I think we need to consider the environmental consequences when we start demanding other materials.”

Phil Piddington, Viridor Managing Director, said: “The theme is working together in the South West and South Wales. One of the things that we want to get out of today is a new way of working together so that we can maximise the re-use of plastics and avoid it going into landfill.”

“We need to have a balanced conversation about good plastics. There are different types of plastics, some are highly recyclable, and some are very difficult and costly to recycle.”

“Today is the start, here in the South West and Wales, of actually getting us together collectively to have that debate.”

“The great news is that over the last two years, we have got brand leaders fully engaged and they are setting their own targets which are truly ambitious. But in order to achieve them they are needed to innovate and we are doing quite a lot of work with the major brand leaders so that they have more recycled content to blend.”

“We’re not going to solve that level of collaboration overnight because if it’s going to be effective and create lasting change then we’ve got to bring everyone with us.”

“We’ve got to make sure we listen to local authorities, what works for the big processors, manufacturers and what we would love to see is everybody together making some concrete commitments of what we can do in the region and today was the start of that.”