Our most recent Better Waste Services Live event, Garden Waste 2024, took place on Tuesday 2^nd July at Birmingham’s Park Regis Hotel.

Bringing together speakers and attendees from local councils and industry-leading waste management service providers, the day’s agenda offered a wealth of opportunities for learning, networking, and sharing experiences and expertise.

And because the waste management and recycling industry can sometimes seem a little, well, bland, the PermiServ team donned their boldest and brightest outfits, all in the name of bringing a lively burst of colour to a beige industry.

On the agenda

Among the day’s highlights were: a session from Erewash Borough Council on their immensely successful communications campaign which resulted in 32,000 garden waste subscriptions; a detailed look at how Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council implemented chargeable garden waste collections, and what Cannock Chase District Council learnt when they introduced garden waste services.

And that wasn’t all… Tim Read-Lamb, Operations Manager at Basildon Borough Council, took us through the finer details of making the transition to a chargeable service, and the team from Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council shared learnings on budgets, direct debits and software.

Our favourite session title of the day – ‘I work in garden waste, send help!’ – was delivered by Sally Rose of Cheshire East Council and detailed how the council implemented a digital system of commingled waste and food, and the accompanying 8-month campaign. And our live Q&A session enabled attendees to submit their questions via an app to have them answered by our panel of experts.

Rewarding excellence

A key driver of our live events is our belief in rewarding excellence in the sector – celebrating councils’ commitment to delivering high-quality services for their residents. So, we were thrilled to present Ipswich Borough Council with our award for ‘Best Practice in Garden Waste’.

Personally chosen as the winners by LARAC Chair Catherine Cook, the team at Ipswich were praised for their work on waste contamination (an often-neglected issue in garden waste), their education initiatives on promoting environmentally friendly actions like composting, and for addressing the issue of missed collections.

“It was a fantastic event, and we are so grateful to all our speakers and attendees. We really appreciate all the support everyone gave us on the day,” said PermiServ Sales Director Louise Lambourne. “As more and more councils move to chargeable services, we love bringing them together so they can share wisdom and learn from each other.”

All the talks from the event are now available to watch (or rewatch) at the link below. And we’ll soon be back with further events, both in person and online, as we continue our mission to drive innovation and excellence in the garden waste industry – so watch this space!