The Northern Ireland Waste & Resource Management Conference 2025

Thursday, May 15th, Titanic Conference Centre, Belfast

Driving Circularity – the way forward:

Overcoming Challenges and Creating Opportunities

Conference Chair Dan Cooke
Director of Policy, Communications and External Affairs, CIWM 

9:00 Opening Remarks

Keith Patterson, CIWM NI Chairperson

9:05 Opening Address

Rethinking Our Resources and the Path to Net Zero

Julie Thomspon (Deputy Secretary, Environment, Marine and Fisheries Group) 

9:15 Turning Off the Tap – How better design can influence the supply chain and contribute to a Circular Economy

Tim Walker, President, CIWM UK

9:35 Embracing Circular Living in NI 

Claire Shrewsbury, Director, Insights & Innovation, WRAP UK

9:55 The Key to Recycling Engagement is “Talking Rubbish”

• Engaging citizens in recycling
• Making waste more entertaining
• Moving the circular economy from niche to mainstream

Robbie Staniforth, Innovation and Policy Director, Ecosurety

10:15 Behavioural Science: Driving the Change Needed for Impact

Dr. Rachael Singleton, University of Ulster and Chair of Sustainable NI

10:35 Q&A Session 1 – Progressing Resources and Waste Policy in Northern Ireland

10:50 Morning Coffee Break, Exhibition Viewing & Networking 

11:20 Northern Irish Waste Sector Legal Updates 

Michaela Diver, Partner, A&L Goodbody

11:40  Waste intelligence: Solving the Root Cause of Inefficiency in Waste Sorting

Matthew Steventon, Business Development Lead, Grey Parrot 

12:00 TBC

12:20  Latest updates from the Waste Industry

• Contamination Detection
• DRS Lessons Learnt
• Packaging EPR Benchmarking

Conor Walsh, Sectetary, RecycleNI

12:40 Q&A Session 2 – Sector Collaboration to Drive Change

12:55 Lunch, Exhibition Viewing & Networking 

2:00  Closing the Loop: How to drive Northern Ireland’s Circular Economy forward and keep plastic recycling local

• The past approach of exporting recyclables is no longer sustainable
• How to change the game by collecting, sorting, and reprocessing rPET plastic locally, reducing reliance on international markets and creating a closed-loop system that benefits the environment, the economy and Irish businesses
• Shabra’s role in Ireland’s Deposit Return Scheme, and the plant’s new hot wash line

Rita Shah, Group President, The Shabra Plastics & Packaging Group

2:20 Introduction of plastic film and flexibles for recycling

Tom McBeth, Policy Officer, LARAC 

2:40 Deposit Return and support for Circular Economy initiatives – lessons learnt from the Rep of Ireland experience

• An overview of the launch of the Deposit Return Scheme in Ireland
• Consumer support for circular economy initiatives

Ciaran Foley, CEO, Re – Turn

3:00  Bronagh Millar, Characterisation Manager, The Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre, Queen’s University Belfast

3:20 Q&A Session 3 – Plastics – future compositional changes

3:35 Closing Remarks

Darragh McConville, Chair of Recycle NI

3:45 Conference Ends