Today I’ve learned you can recycle almost everything!

Today I attended a workshop run by the National Industrial Symbiosis Project (NISP), a project originally funded by DEFRA now funded by Waste and Resources Action Project (WRAP) to help industry find waste solutions, by matching a waste producer to a waste solutions company. It was fascinating stuff! I like many people knew that we recycled plastic, cardboard, paper, glass – but it is very interesting to learn how some of this and other waste products are recycled.

On my table I had companies who were recycling food waste for use in composting, soil enrichment and animal feed. A representative from Mars Foods was looking to recycle various waste – sadly not Mars bars!!

There were some staggering and frightening stats – 160,000 mattresses go into landfill every year!

The workshop was a sort of cross between speed dating and the Stock Exchange floor. Participants filled in slips of paper details their ‘haves’ and ‘wants’ – these were exchanged around all the tables giving everyone in the room the opportunity to register their ‘matches’ – the end result waste producers were matched to waste solutions.

Why were we there? It potentially opens up waste streams which might supply the Resource Unit. I left Nick talking to the Army about their waste products.