The Northern Ireland Waste & Resource Management Conference 2026
Thursday, May 21st, Titanic Conference Centre, Belfast
Turning Circular Ambition into Action
Conference Chair Dan Cooke, Director of Policy, Communications and External Affairs, CIWM
9:30 Opening Remarks
Keith Patterson, CIWM NI Chairperson
9:35 DAERA Presentation (confirmed)
9:50 KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Are Waste streams a “Lost Opportunity”?
- Current state of play globally on resources
- Role of waste and resource managers
- Innovations in material extraction
- Presidential report highlighting 6 materials
Dr David Greenfield, President, CIWM UK
10:10 Esther Carter, Chief Strategy Officer, PackUK
10:30 Q&A Session 1 Vision, Strategy, and Solutions
10:45 Morning Coffee Break, Exhibition Viewing & Networking
11:15 ReGen Presentation
11:35 The evolving policy landscape for materials, infrastructure, and waste tracking
- As widespread policy changes continue to sweep across the UK, LARAC will provide an update on the impact on local authorities.
- This will include pEPR, ETS, DRS and other parts of the UK-wide collection and packaging reforms, updates on the Digital Waste Tracking requirements to be placed on Northern Irish authorities from October 2026
- The challenge of infrastructure and collection and recycling of challenging items, including batteries, vapes and textiles.
Tom McBeth, Policy Officer, LARAC
11:55 A Risk-Based Approach to Fire Protection
This session explores how anticipating and prioritising fire hazards leads to better safety outcomes in waste and recycling operations.
- Why fire safety is about more than just fire systems
- Anticipating and prioritising hazards to focus where it matters most — including asking the uncomfortable “what happens if” questions
- Selecting solutions to mitigate risk — not just meet compliance
- Aligning stakeholders behind a single, risk-led approach
- Why understanding how detection and suppression actually work — and how they interact with your process — is critical
- Real-world examples of how different solutions perform in practice
Keith Picton, Director at Blazequel
12:15 Julie Hill OBE, Interim Chair, Office of Environmental Protection
12:35 Q&A Session 2 Regulation, Service Delivery, and Environmental Performance
1:00 Lunch, Exhibition Viewing & Networking
2:00 KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Lithium-ion batteries | The good, the bad and the downright dangerous!
- What is thermal runaway and why does it happen in these batteries?
- Why do we use them and where can we find them?
- What are some of the other issues and what is being done?
- How are they treated at end of life?
- What do we see happening moving forward?
Christopher Porter – Sustainability Consultant and Circular Economy Lead, SLR Consulting Ltd.
2:20 Plastic Packaging, Closing the Loop
Michael Cunningham, Director, Polymer Matters
2:40 Recycling and Circularity – is it achievable?
- Circularity what does it really mean
- Regulation – the gaps
- Failure to support recyclers
- Public perception knowledge and interest in recycling
- Cost of failure to us all
Brian Finnegan, CTO, Shabra Plastics & Packaging
3:00 Q&A Session 3 Critical challenges and circular opportunities
3:15 Closing Remarks
Darragh McConville, Chair of Recycle NI
3:20 Conference Ends