Advetec & CIWM Webinar Highlights The Role Of Innovation In Life Beyond Landfill

Hard to handle waste streams and the role of advanced technology in waste reduction were hot topics of discussion on our latest webinar with the Chartered Institute of Waste Management (CIWM).

Earlier this month, Dr Stephen Wise, our chief strategic development officer, shared the critical role of biotechnology innovation in transforming waste management and tackling difficult waste streams destined for landfill. The webinar, sponsored by Advetec, featured Dr Wise as well as host Dan Cask, director of policy and communications at CIWM, and Stuart Hayward-Higham, chief technical development and innovation officer at SUEZ UK.

During the hour-long webinar, Dr Wise outlined the widespread legislative change impacting the industry and offered a benefits-led explanation of how biotechnology offers a time-critical way to reduce landfill waste.

Specialist waste streams, such as anaerobic digestion plant rejects and offensive washroom waste, have traditionally been sent to landfill as they have a high moisture content, are sticky and odorous in nature, contaminated with organics, and present challenges with storage and segregation.

Dr Wise explained the role of Advetec’s biotechnology in stabilising these types of waste by removing moisture, odour and the organic fraction, so that value can be extracted from the floc that’s left. This floc negates the need for landfill and opens new offtake routes such as fuel for cement kilns or in pyrolysis and chemical recycling.

Dr Wise concluded: “The waste sector is awash with seismic change, and new legislation is often overlapping in its reach or creating unintended consequences. All of this makes it particularly difficult for smaller waste handlers to know which way to turn, but they must act. Inertia is costly.

“Due to the proposed 2028 ban on biodegradable waste to landfill in England, combined with rising EfW costs, waste handlers must start adapting and thinking differently. One way to reduce their reliance on landfill is to utilise technology. To support the shift to a circular economy, our collective focus must be on value extraction and landfill diversion of under-addressed waste streams.”

Offering delegates a wealth of technical insight and industry perspective, the webinar also uncovered the sector’s appetite for change, along with a degree of wariness due to numerous policy, logistical, and market-based shifts.

Dr Wise added: “There is no silver bullet to solve all the sector’s challenges – but there are achievable and affordable actions that can make a very real difference now. By embracing innovation and investing in modular solutions, smaller waste handlers can unlock the value of their most difficult and costly waste streams. In turn, this future-proofs operations and helps waste handlers to stay ahead of regulation and reduce their costs too.”

Watch the webinar in full on the CIWM Knowledge Centre, here.