Market Intelligence Report
June 2024 Newsletter
A debrief highlighting the most important, impactful and interesting topics affecting the sector.
Market Intelligence Report
ISB Global Roundtable Ignites Discussion on Tech’s Power to Transform the Industry
The ISB Global-hosted CIO Roundtable at Waste Expo 2024 buzzed with energy as leading industry figures Rob Fisher (LRS), Mike May (GFL Environmental Inc.), and Eric Hansen (Waste Connections) tackled the critical role technology plays in shaping the future of waste management. In what was a landmark event for the waste and recycling industry, the openness and honesty from our panel of CIOs, provided invaluable insights into the industry’s tech landscape.
News we thought was of interest
Mandatory Digital Waste Tracking Q&A Update May 2024
“Laura McNulty, Policy Lead, delivered a presentation on the baseline journey for UK waste movement. You can watch the presentation here.
Read below for the answers to the questions asked at the R&W forum. This includes a recap of those the answers provided by the policy team at the forum and questions added to the forum chat function.”
Chris Skidmore Accuses PM of “Siding with Climate Deniers”
He said this was perhaps “the greatest tragedy of [Sunak’s] premiership”, saying it has “cost us not just environmentally but also economically”. Mr Skidmore wrote in The Guardian: “For the first time, I cannot vote for a party that has boasted of new oil and gas licences in its manifesto or that now argues that net zero is a burden and not a benefit. “Instead, like many others who know that we have neither choice nor any more time, and need to tackle the climate crisis now, I have decided that the Labour Party is best placed to achieve economic growth and the green industrial revolution.” Net zero is one of its five key priorities, and for this reason I will be voting Labour at this election.”
CIWM Post Election Resource Policy Blueprint
“Ahead of this summer’s general election, the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) has reviewed Defra’s ‘Resources and Waste Strategy for England’ to determine its ongoing relevance, and to identify any policy gaps where it fails to support the UK’s future requirements.
The output of this process, which was undertaken by a working group of CIWM members, is a policy blueprint in the form of ten ‘policy asks’. These have been designed to accelerate the transition to a more resource resilient and circular economy capable of meeting future material demands and supporting the battle against climate change.”
The EU’s Crack Down on Illegal Waste Shipments
“A new European regulation has just come into force. Countries that are not OECD members, such as Tunisia, will have to prove that they have the capacity to treat waste sustainably in order to receive it. The export of plastic waste outside the EU will be banned. The regulation also includes new tools to combat these eco-mafias.
These new tools will be deployed in ports like Genoa in Italy, one of the Mediterranean’s main shipping hubs. Customs officers here are at the forefront of the fight against illegal waste trafficking More than a million containers pass through these docks every year. Some of this waste is exported under false customs declarations.”
Resource Recycling Systems (RRS) & Fashion For Good (FFG) Publish Textile Circularity Report
Unveiling the Sorting for Circularity USA Report – Today marks a transformative moment for the US textile industry as Fashion for Good (FFG) proudly launches the groundbreaking “Sorting for Circularity USA” report. Fashion for Good is a global innovation platform advancing textile circularity across the globe and RRS was proud to work with them on this innovative initiative that is a testament to our shared commitment to creating a more sustainable and circular future. This report is representative of the collaborative efforts happening within the textile circularity industry and has the power to inform policy and unlock investment.
World Environment Day – Generation Restoration
Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem Restoration for People, Nature and Climate synthesizes evidence of the state of degradation of the world’s ecosystems and details the economic, environmental and social rewards that restoration can bring. The report shows that, far from being a ‘nice to have’, ecosystem restoration is needed on a large scale in order to achieve the sustainable development agenda. Over-exploitation of natural resources is embedded in economies and governance systems, and the resulting degradation is undermining hard-won development gains and threatening the well-being of future generations.
Countries need to deliver on their existing commitments to restore 1 billion hectares of degraded land and make similar commitments for marine and coastal areas. Ecosystem restoration is one of the most important ways of delivering nature-based solutions for food insecurity, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and biodiversity loss. It won’t be quick or easy, and it will take deep changes to everything from the way we measure economic progress to how we grow food and what we eat. But the beauty of ecosystem restoration is that it can happen at any scale – and everyone has a role to play.
EU Adopts Eco Design Regulation
The regulation affects all kinds of products, with only a few exceptions (i.e. cars or defence and security related products). The new regulation introduces new requirements such as product durability, reusability, upgradability and reparability, rules on the presence of substances that inhibit circularity; energy and resource efficiency; recycled content, remanufacturing and recycling; carbon and environmental footprints; and information requirements, including a Digital Product Passport. The Commission will be empowered to set ecodesign requirements by delegated acts and the industry will have 18 months to comply with them.
Ecodesign criteria will be applicable in public procurement to incentivise the public purchase of green products. The new regulation introduces a direct-ban on the destruction of unsold textiles and footwear (SMEs will be temporarily excluded) and empowers the Commission to introduce similar bans for other products in the future. The ecodesign regulation will be aligned to the digital services act, when it comes to products sold online.
Zero Waste Scotland Publish Scottish Waste Environmental Footprint Toolset & Report
“As with its predecessor, the Carbon Metric, SWEFT includes the impacts of waste generated during the upstream production process, such as raw material extraction and manufacturing, and during waste management. Any benefits of waste treatment, for example due to recycling, are also included.
It is an evolution of the Carbon Metric, a pioneering development in the monitoring of waste impacts. However, unlike the Carbon Metric, SWEFT expands our knowledge by combining the carbon impacts of waste with the results of other environmental damage indicators including:”
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