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Think differently, the now infamous advertising campaign produced by Apple between 1997 and 2002 highlighted that people who see things differently change things:

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

*Steve Jobs, Apple 1997. 

On the 18^th February the Government published a series of documents asking for the public views on key areas of waste management. Resident expert David Newman has compiled the top five things you need to know from the consultations. You can find out more and have your say by visiting the Gov.uk 

*As many powers are already devolved to Scotland and Wales, these consultations mainly concern England.

I was recently asked to present at the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (formerly BIFM) AGM about the plastic’s ‘crisis’.  A subject that I had written about for World Environment day last year. In the article, I called on organisations to really think about, and investigate what happens to their wastes, rather than implementing a ‘quick fix’ solution that could do more harm than good. 

On November 29th I was invited to join Liz Bonnin, BBC environmental documentarist, to talk at the Royal Geographic Society on how we as a Planet are ‘drowning in plastics’ a documentary originally produced by the BBC in September. The panel discussion included Richard Thompson, Marine Biologist, Sian Sutherland, Co-Founder of A Plastics Planet and Research, Stephanie Wright from Kings College London.

Liz opened the event illustrating how plastics have entered every part of our lives, from oceans to small villages in Indonesia.

Where in Scotland does the public sector, private sector, community, investors and third sector come together to build innovative, industry defining ideas? The answer is CivTech®.

A unique accelerator programme run by the Scottish Government that empowers public sector organisations to lay out specific challenges for private sector companies to solve. 

My name is Jack and I’m developing our answer to Challenge 6, set by National Services Scotland, “How can we transform the re-use of products for NHS Scotland?”. It was a pleasure to talk with Derek Mackay MSP (Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Economy & Fair Work) about Scotland's growing circular economy...but I wish I had worn a smarter jumper(!)

Ditto Sustainability has been chosen to transform the re-use of products for NHS Scotland. Reducing waste, providing cost savings, and developing skilled jobs; stimulating the Scottish circular economy.

Dan Botterill, CEO of Ditto Sustainability, explains how Artificial intelligence (AI) can help towards achieving a more circular economy.

The 4th Industrial revolution conjures imagery of all kinds of technology adaptations and evolutions; driverless cars, the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and AI – the last of which underpins many applications in this area. The wide scale adoption of AI massively divides opinion. The inability of machine learning and probabilistic AI technologies to ‘self account’ or ‘explain’ how they have reached their conclusions is a very prominent concern for many, particularly those writing the law...

 

Shocking news emerged that the UK’s leading independent provider of healthcare waste management had been failing to dispose of 350 tonnes of medical waste, which included human body parts; sparking a major national incident and highlighting the importance of the waste duty of care.

This blog explains what the ‘Duty of Care’ is, providing you with practical guidance on how to meet your waste duty of care requirements. The ‘Duty of Care’ applies to anyone who produces, carries, keeps, dispose of, treats, imports or has control of waste. This process begins at the point you intend to discard something and produce waste. So more than likely it will apply to you and your business….

What happens to the rubbish that leaves your home or business? In the UK, a lot of it is incinerated.

For those of us who’ve worked in or with the waste industry for a while, it certainly feels like times are changing. A public obsession with single use plastics, rallying cries for better food waste segregation and management, and the emergence of the new agenda in town: the circular economy.

So what does this mean for the oft maligned waste management contractor? How does its role need to adapt and evolve to respond to the progressively more outspoken ethical consumers?