Good morning everyone. It s my pleasure to welcome you to the WRAP annual conference. It is good to see so many of you here today.

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1 Dr Liz Goodwin WRAP Annual Conference, London, 2011 Good morning everyone. It s my pleasure to welcome you to the WRAP annual conference. It is good to see so many of you here today. With the global economy still under pressure, there has never been a more important time to discuss how business resource efficiency that is, wasting less and recycling more can deliver cost benefits and growth opportunities as well as the obvious environmental benefits. We have a stimulating agenda for you today. some excellent speakers, and the chance for what I believe will be thought-provoking debate providing practical ideas. Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director of the Forum for the Future and Charlie Browne, Sustainable Development Manager for IKEA, are already here welcome to you both. And later, we will be joined by Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State for the Environment. I am very much looking forward to their thoughts and ideas, which I am sure will be both challenging and informative. In my opening comments I would like to focus on just two things: WRAP s work and impact over the past three years, and our future priorities. Those priorities, of course, reflect the priorities of the governments of the UK. This should come as no surprise since those governments tell us how much our work and research has influenced their agendas. That is a role and impact I am very proud of, since our work is practical and evidence-based. You will see from your delegate packs that there will be opportunities for questions during the day. We ve already received a number of questions from you as part of the registration process, and we ll be tabling some of these. There will be a chance to raise other questions from the floor, too, so please make good use of that time, as our presentations are sure to trigger thoughts. WRAP S IMPACT Three years ago, WRAP launched its latest business plan, designed to help both the environment and the economy. Since then, much has changed. In Westminster, there is a new Coalition government, which carried out a major review of waste policy and set out its stall to be the greenest government ever. There are new governments in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, all with serious environmental and economic ambition. Critically, we also have a backdrop of hugely challenging economic conditions arguably the most difficult for decades. We have also seen a steady move away from a focus on simply recycling as much as possible of the waste we produce, towards the ultimate goal of achieving zero waste economies. This, of course, continues to shape our work and focus.

2 Our goals would have been challenging without so much change: but in spite of the undoubtedly difficult conditions, with the help of our partners, I am pleased to report that we not only met but exceeded all our headline targets. The amount of waste being sent to landfill reduced by 11 million tonnes a year as a result of our work, against a target of eight million tonnes. We influenced a reduction in the amount of CO 2 emissions by target of five m t. 5.5 million tonnes every year, against a And, in some ways most pleasingly, we helped generate 2 billion a year of economic benefits to businesses, local authorities and consumers against a target of 1.1 billion. We have published the methodology for all this, along with the results in detail, on our website. I believe this last target economic growth is crucial, given the financial pressures organisations and individuals across the UK have been facing and continue to face as we head towards the end of another year. Within that headline growth goal, we said we want specifically to deliver 818 million of savings every year. What we actually delivered was 1.8 billion of savings a year, an impact which translates into very tangible benefits for business and industry. The environmental benefits of being resource efficient are, I think we would agree, largely accepted as a given, but increasingly, we are being challenged to identify and pursue the economic benefits that can be delivered at the same time. Today I want, once and for all, to dispel the urban myth that making your business more resource efficient carries a net cost. Yes, there can be investment costs, but there is also the pay-back which goes straight to the bottom line. The practical experience of firms we work with shows time and again there is a net gain. Businesses would not be getting - and staying! - engaged if this wasn t the case. They couldn t afford to. For WRAP, helping our partners deliver financial as well as environmental benefits is absolutely the cornerstone of what we do. We have to be able to help you get to a place where you can achieve your own resource efficiency goals and meet your own financial targets. It s our impact that matters: the figures I gave sound impressive, but don t really tell the story of the practical impact we have made. That s why we call this [holds up the impact report] a report on impact. We ve sought to demonstrate within its pages just some of the breadth and depth of our activity from supporting investment in anaerobic digestion plants and working with the food and drink sector.... to delivering training and support for SMEs and helping local authorities to develop recycling programmes that meet their customers needs. Our work in supporting consumers and business in wasting less and recycling more is, I think, reasonably well known.

3 Less well known, however, is the ground-breaking research and technological innovation we have pioneered. This supports the UK economy through delivering major breakthroughs in resource efficiency that in turn, deliver cost savings. And over the past three years, we can point to progress we ve made, in partnership with others, towards the zero waste goal. As part of this, the issue of food waste, with its economic and environmental cost, remains a top priority for all the UK governments which fund us. This morning, we published new research which shows a sharp fall in household food waste by 13% between 2006/07 (when we first all began to appreciate the magnitude of the problem) and For local authorities, this represents savings of around 80 million in landfill charges. This fall, from 8.3 million tonnes to 7.2 million tonnes per year, is of course, very welcome and probably due to a range of factors some behavioural, some economic. We detail these in the research we ve published today. But we do know that local authorities, retailers, manufacturers, charities and community groups have all worked hard with WRAP to help encourage this reduction, and their contribution is crucial. However, there is still much be done. Despite the reduction, the food we waste in homes, which accounts for about half the UK s food waste, is alone still worth 12 billion a year as a result of food price inflation. And the food that is being wasted throughout the supply chain is significant at a time when food security is a major global issue. Other research we ve carried out shows the hospitality sector could save 724 million a year by reducing the amount of food and drink it throws away. You will be hearing more in the coming months about the work we re doing with the sector to help it address this very real issue. We have always been at pains to stress that we way we work with other organisations is a vital ingredient in any successes that have been achieved. I d like to give you some quick examples of what this looks like in practice. We worked with West Oxfordshire District Council to help it launch an integrated refuse, recycling and waste collection service. This will help it save half a million pounds a year. Our work with Asda for example, on reducing packaging, supply chain and shelf-life optimisation, and advice on opportunities for anaerobic digestion has helped the supermarket chain stop 12,000 tonnes of waste being sent to landfill, saving more than 1 million. The Scottish company behind the famous Irn Bru brand, AG Barr, has used WRAP research and expertise to help it reduce the amount of plastic used in its bottles saving 375 tonnes a year. Enough plastic to make 18 million bottles! Through the WRAP co-ordinated Home Improvement Sector Commitment, the DIY sector has succeeded in reducing packaging by 12%. And it has reduced the quantity of waste sent to landfill by 64%. A WRAP and Food & Drink Federation voluntary agreement which aims to help food and drink manufacturers increase water efficiency saw signatories use just under 23 million cubic metres of water in

4 2010. This compares to a figure of more than 24 million cubic metres in And that s despite production increasing overall. In Wales, WRAP Cymru worked with the recycling and reprocessing sector to help companies divert commercial and industrial waste from landfill, saving SMEs more than 10 million in landfill charges. Providing resource efficiency advice to businesses (particularly small and medium enterprises), in England and Scotland has helped them make savings of more than 80 million a year. This will continue to be at the heart of what we do, and our priority not only for businesses but also for local authorities who face their own budget pressures. Working with REAlliance on a programme to increase the capacity and sustainability of voluntary sector organisations, and promote steady growth, we helped create more than 580 permanent jobs. Between them, participating organisations saw turnover increase by 12.8 million. And in Teesside, the new Biffa Polymers plant received a 1.2 million grant from WRAP on behalf of the UK government, creating 48 new jobs in the process. I d now like to say something more about our future priorities. I ve already spoken about the ground-breaking research we produce, and from which we can develop plans and partnerships that tackle the opportunities that our work highlights. I m delighted to say that today we have published the first major research into the benefits of greater reuse of every-day household items such as televisions and sofas. By reuse, I mean a simple way of extending a product s life. This could include donating items to, or buying from charity shops, using on-line exchange websites, or giving to and receiving from friends and family. This new research tells us that there would be significant gains for both the UK economy and the environment, through reusing goods and services more, rather than just throwing them away. We could continue to consume goods at the same rate, and dispose of them in the same way. But this approach has long-term impacts on the availability of raw materials On the consumption of water in growing and manufacturing processes.. On the amount of greenhouse gas emissions our purchasing patterns create And on the landfill space we d need.. Not to mention the financial costs associated with this method of disposal. What our research shows is that if we improved our levels of reuse and extracted the maximum life from goods we could reduce the UK s CO 2 emissions by almost four million tonnes every year between now and That s the equivalent to taking one million cars off the road for a whole year. It also shows that for most items, reuse has better environmental impacts than either recycling or energy recovery. We know that many people are already discovering the benefits of reuse, albeit at a small scale. For example, they re making savings of more than 1 billion - and that s just on the items we looked at as part of our research, such as televisions, sofas, washing machines and office furniture.

5 If these savings were to be scaled up, with more of us reusing more items, the potential for positive financial impact is enormous. We believe that if the demand for new things were to fall, any job losses would be small, most likely focused outside the UK, and more than offset here by the creation of new jobs. for example, in the charity sector, furniture reconditioning and reselling, on-line exchange, computer rebuilding and so on. There are opportunities too, for new business models that build on delivering whole-life use of goods for example, in collection, repair, reselling or leasing. A key issue for us is understanding whether reused goods are taking the place of new items (the displacement effect) and if so, how long they last. We don t know the answers to these questions yet. So where does this research lead us? We re currently looking at ways of increasing reuse rates. For example, we re working with public sector organisations to look at sustainable procurement, and what shape that might take. We re developing some standards for reused and repaired goods so that consumers can buy with confidence. We re looking at how we can create market pull for the reused market. And we re also exploring ways in which we can encourage better labelling of electronic goods so that there s a clearer understanding of their potential for reuse. I started today by talking about our impacts over the previous three years, and I hope that I ve been able to give you some concrete examples of exactly what difference we ve helped others to make. Our conference, however, isn t just about the past. It is also about looking forward and sharing with you some of the new, and continuing challenges we are all facing. We launched our new business plan earlier this year and our focus for the next three years is very much on food waste, recycling services for businesses, and encouraging greater reuse of scarce resources. These are the priorities for the governments which fund our work, and as a result, they are our priorities, too. We re looking forward to building on existing partnerships and creating new ones across all the nations, and embracing business, industry, local authorities and communities so that together we can address these issues. And continue to move towards our vision of a world without waste. Now you have heard from us and what we believe are some of the important issues that face us, not only as an organisation, but as a society. Let s now hear what the experts and practitioners think about these challenges. I am delighted now to introduce our first guest speaker, Jonathon Porritt..