The United Kingdom Without Incineration Network (UKWIN) held its eighth Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Saturday 30th May 2015 at the Greenpeace Offices in London.
The meeting brought dozens of campaigners together to share updates, to celebrate the work of UKWIN’s many hard-working volunteers, and to listen to a number of guest speakers and take part in discussion and networking.
Participants were welcomed by UKWIN’s Chair Callum MacKenzie (pictured right), and received reports from UKWIN’s National Coordinator Shlomo Dowen.
The business of the AGM was followed by a presentation from Biofuelwatch’s Duncan Law on protest against GIB funding of incineration and biomass; a presentation from Donna Liley on the impacts of waste wood on communities; and a presentation from UKWIN’s Technical Advisor Tim Hill on technical matters associated with incineration.
As part of the AGM’s theme of ‘Europe Without Incineration’, attendees engaged with the emerging zero waste circular economy. UKWIN’s keynote speaker was Joan Marc Simon (pictured below), executive director of Zero Waste Europe, who spoke about the theory and practice of Zero Waste, the Zero Waste movement (including several case studies), and progress towards the circular economy.
Three key principles of Zero Waste were set out as:
- Making waste visible to design it out of the system;
- Excellent separate collection; and
- Stopping superfluous waste.
One of Joan Marc’s key messages was that ‘zero waste to landfill’ is not Zero Waste because such an approach fails to address the higher tiers of the Waste Hierarchy, and completely misses the cost savings and environmental benefits associated with Zero Waste’s reduction in waste generation.
UKWIN National Coordinator Shlomo Dowen said: “This year’s AGM was another great success, and we would like to thank all of those who attended, including of course our guest speakers. UKWIN is also grateful for the grant we received from Lush which helped pay for venue, catering and travel expenses.”
The United Kingdom Without Incineration Network (UKWIN) is comprised of more than 80 Member Groups. Individual campaigners and groups can join UKWIN free of charge by visiting https://ukwin.org.uk/join