Zero Waste Chartists

Towards Zero Waste

A one-day conference on recycling and composting solutions for our waste, organised by the Zero Waste Chartists and hosted by Oxford Friends of the Earth.

Saturday 25 March 2006 at the Wesley Memorial Hall, New Inn Hall Street, Oxford.

Programme

The conference was chaired by Jennifer Parkhouse, Norwich FoE waste campaigner and Zero Waste campaigner.

10.30am	Registration & coffee
11.00am	The conference will be opened by Cllr Bob Price, Lord Mayor of Oxford.
11.05am	Dr Michael Warhurst, Friends of the Earth's Senior Waste Campaigner: No more disposal - what needs to be done locally, nationally and at EU level in order to phase out residual waste. Since the launch of the Zero Waste Charter, FoE has called for 60% recycling and composting by 2010, 75% by 2015, aiming for Zero Waste by 2020. [Powerpoint presentation]
11.20am	Marion Williams, former Labour chair of Essex Waste Strategy Committee when the county and district councils agreed the policy for 60% recycling and composting by 2007; former Braintree councillor, the first council to adopt the Zero Waste Charter.
11.35am	Roger Symonds, Lib Dem councillor, Bath & NE Somerset Council, and member LGA Environment Board, tells us how Zero Waste is being implemented by his council and the GoZero Chew Valley Somerset community.
11.50am	Margaret Salisidis, waste campaigner for Richmond & Twickenham FoE, describes the battle, supported by local doctors, against a proposed Slough incinerator.
12.00pm	Val Barton, of BanWaste and CAIR groups in Newcastle and the Zero Waste Alliance, tells the appalling story of the infamous Byker Incinerator burning Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) from Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT), with highly toxic ash spread on allotment paths.
12.20pm	Teresa Brzoza, of PAIN (Parents Against INcinerator) in Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea, will bring us the latest in the Port Neath Talbot MBT/RDF/incinerator debacle - the plant caught fire, closed for over two years and the company has gone bankcrupt.
12.40pm	Questions to the panel of morning speakers.
1.00pm	Buffet lunch, displays, and two showings of Paul Connett's Zero Waste video, with Arnold Woolley, of CANK group, opposing cement kilns burning wastes.
2.00pm	Special guests on Zero Waste from California to Suffolk: Rick Anthony of Zero Waste California on Planning for Zero Waste (15 mins); Dr Neil Seldman, President Institute of Self-Reliance, Washington, on Jobs not Pollution (10 mins); Maxine Narburgh, Suffolk Connect, on The Zero Waste Centre project (5 mins); Group discussion and questions (10 mins).
2.40pm	Worku Lakew, Director London Community Recycling Network, running kerbside collections for 80,000 households in Tower Hamlets, London will give the economic and environmental case for separated collections and Zero Waste.
3.00pm	Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator Essex FoE and Zero Waste Chartists, recycles 98% on Mersea Island using Colchester Council's kerbside collection and home compostbins. 4,500 homes in Mersea area trial recycle 60%. Four out of five homes participated so they average 75% recycling. The trial complied with the final 2020 target of the Landfill Directive to reduce biodegradable waste going to landfill by two-thirds.
3.20pm	John Marley, Recycling Manager, Berryman glass recycling - the important environmental case for recycling glass, saving energy and raw materials.
3.30pm	Chris Field, of The Composting Company Ltd - large-scale in-vessel composting. Chris set up a foodwaste composting system at Cambridge University.
3.40pm	Tea break
4.00pm	A crossparty panel of politicians discuss Zero Waste and invite questions, chaired by Jane Fisher, Coordinator of Oxford FoE: Cllr Tony de Vere, Vale of White Horse District Council (Liberal Democrat) Cllr Alex Hollingsworth, leader of Oxford City Council (Labour) Cllr Craig Simmons, Oxford City Council and County councillor (Green) Julian Wheatland (Conservative)
4.30pm	Conference closed by Cllr Bob Price, Lord Mayor of Oxford.