Chamber Member RECOUP Hosts Successful Awards and Conference in Peterborough
October 23, 2023
Peterborough based plastics resource efficiency and recycling charity RECOUP again demonstrated its credentials with one of the most engaging conference and dinner events in the sustainability and environmental sector this year.
The conference itself was held at the Kingsgate Conference Centre in Peterborough for the 10th year with over 400 regional, national and international delegates in attendance from across various different sectors including brand, retail, waste management, plastics, trade bodies and NGO’s.
Tom Heap from BBC’s ‘Countryfile moderated the morning sessions, igniting discussions about the right materials and the right approaches, as well as exploring innovations in the industry and the circular economy. Packaging, products, systems and policies were all covered throughout the day. The sessions explored how the whole value chain should work better together to make circular economy and environmental protection a reality. Yet the abundance of constantly changing legislation, company strategy, environmental impact, and consumer views makes this task a lot more complicated than it perhaps needs to be. Robert Thompson, Packaging Manager from The Co-op, commented that “we collectively need to make reuse, recovery and recycling easy, accessible and affordable for all.”
The awards and pre-event dinner also held in Peterborough included a welcome speech by the guest of honour, the Vice Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, Brigadier Tim Seal. He provided the delegates with a warm welcome to Peterborough, and quoted King Charles III from a previous environmental speech noting that “Given the tremendous opportunity that a transition to a circular economy offers both towards improving the health of our oceans as well as to businesses, surely it would be wise to move ahead with its implementation with a degree of considerable urgency. While solutions do seem to be at hand we are only likely to succeed if there is considerable concerted and collaborative action into the future by all involved.” Brigadier Seal also wished RECOUP well with their entry into The King’s Awards for Enterprise for Sustainable Development, alongside their entry into the British Chamber of Commerce ‘The Planet Saver Green Business of The Year Award’.
He alongside RECOUP Chairman Jim Armstrong and guest presenter Tom Heap presented the evenings awards won by Apetito & Wiltshire Farm Foods, the Seaqual Initiative and Greyparrot AI. The Chairman’s award was presented to Hannah Clifford from Biffa and Jonathan Attwood from Bright Green Recycling.
Stuart Foster, RECOUP CEO said “it was fantastic to see so many people gather in Peterborough to discuss the hot topics around resource efficiency, circular economy and plastics. Both the event and the networking around it was a great success.”
For more information about RECOUP, the work they do and how to join visit www.recoup.org. Next years’ conference is on Thursday 26th September 2024.