By Mark Mackay

ONE OF the UK’s leading experts on sustainability will issue a stark warning to Scotland’s community recycling sector when he speaks at a conference in Perth this month.

In a keynote address to around 200 recycling sector representatives, Professor Erik Bichard will argue that as waste material becomes an increasingly valuable commodity in the global economy, Scottish projects that fail to capitalise on this trend will disappear.

Bichard, professor of regeneration and sustainable development at Salford University, is a speaker at this year’s Community Recycling Network for Scotland (CRNS) conference and awards ceremony on March 11 at Perth Concert Hall.

CRNS is a membership organisation for community-based groups involved in recycling, reuse, composting and waste prevention. As well as diverting more than 73,000 tonnes of material from landfill each year, community recycling projects deliver many other environmental, social and economic benefits to local communities.

The sector has an annual turnover of £26 million.

While recognising the excellence that takes place in a variety of community recycling projects across the country, Professor Bichard will argue that the “feelgood factor” is not enough and that recycling projects which do not perform well will vanish within a few years.

He said, “As our resources become depleted, or are diverted to the highest bidder, waste material will increasingly fill the gap. In the future, waste will come to be seen as a valuable resource, the waste economy will boom, but only for those that can turn it from a rotting mess into high-value commodities.

“The aim of social recycling businesses is to help build a sustainable society, but this can only happen if the country learns to be self- sufficient in resources.

“The collection of materials by third parties that are not committed to a sustainable future is not really going to help in the long-run.

“A few vulnerable people will be assisted along the way, but only until the social businesses go under. It is the responsibility of all social businesses to re-examine why they are in business and then make the changes necessary to be truly sustainable.”

Professor Bichard added that the public sector should lead by example in encouraging society to use their resources more wisely, by procuring the services of social community recycling businesses.

And he welcomed the Scottish Government’s recently announced ambitious targets to more than double the volume of household waste recycled or composted over the next few years.

However, he added, “It is essential that the targets set are ambitious, but we must also have a phased programme which demonstrates the progress that is being made and encourages people to change their ways. Societal change is much more likely to come about through incentivising rather than disincentivising.”

CRNS network director Iain Gulland said, “It’s a real coup for us to have someone as respected as Erik Bichard joining us on March 11.

As a network organisation aiming to promote community-based recycling initiatives which use resources to serve social needs as well as achieve environmental benefits, CRNS welcomes more challenging targets for recycling.

“We hope more stringent recycling measures will encourage people to view what was once deemed ‘waste’ as a possible resource.

“This change in attitude is essential in our move towards a Zero Waste Scotland—we must begin to classify less as rubbish, and think more about reuse.

Also joining the platform at the conference and awards ceremony will be Scottish Environment Minister Richard Lochhead and Peter Jones OBE of Biffa Plc.

To book a place at “More Than Recycling 08” on March 11 at Perth Concert Hall, visit www.crns.org. uk/index/mtr08 or call 01786 469002.