We look forward to the Coffs Harbour Waste Conference every year, and just like that, it’s over for 2023.

We wanted to express our gratitude to the organisers for another spectacular event, but also share our highlights for anyone who didn’t have the privilege to attend.

The conference commenced with thought-provoking keynote presentations by renowned names in waste management and environmental sustainability. Costa Georgiadis spoke about what we can learn from looking at the collaboration in nature; and Rebecca Gilling, CEO, Planet Ark gave a riveting address about a carbon neutral circular economy for Australia.

The Resource Hub team had a ball rubbing shoulders with the delegates and some real industry heavy weights.

“The conversation with delegates really focused on getting the basics right this year. It’s great to focus on strategic outcomes but there was a lot of focus on getting the basics right. Whether it’s how to compact your landfill, how to make sure you know that you’re as efficient and productive as you can be, how to know that your staff training is taken care of, whether your documentation is fit for purpose. There were a lot of exhibitors and a lot of people really focusing on going back to basics and really improving the service offering to their council or to their local government. So that was another area that was particular interest. It’s probably my biggest take away from the conference.” – Lacey Webb, Founder & CEO

Keynote addresses were broken up with inspiring panels, technology and innovation expos and plenty of education sessions. One of our favourite panels was “Waste Outlook – Infrastructure & Investment” where industry experts discussed key waste infrastructure plans, including where new capacity is being pursued, how infrastructure planning is developed, and considerations for the investment decision making process. The panel discussed the current settings guiding waste infrastructure planning and the challenges for service providers in establishing waste infrastructure.

The conference is so valuable to hear about what’s coming up for the waste industry, from the people on the ground. One key theme Lacey pointed out was: “There’s been a lot of focus on regional and rural this year and the challenges of distance and transport. Even in the seminars about soft plastics or the seminars about higher challenges, the fact that it’s not about solving the problem of stewardship, it’s about solving the problem of stewardship that’s fit for purpose for a regional area in Australia because while most of our population might be based in metropolitan centres, an awful lot of the s*** that we have ends up in other parts of the country. So that was really topical area of content.”

We asked the team to reflect on their time over the 3 day conference, and here’s what they had to say:

“Being my second year at Coffs, it was so fabulous to see so many familiar faces come to chat and say hi again!  I’m no longer a wastie in training!” – Megan Anstice, Business Optimisation Specialist

“It was awesome to attend my first Coffs Conference this year. I kept hearing about this incredible annual gathering of waste and recycling enthusiasts that travel to Coffs Harbour each year, and it was exciting to finally experience this first-hand. Striking up conversations with new interesting people and catching up with people I’d only ever seen on the other side of a video call were the highlights for me.” – Selena Ferguson, Waste Consultant

“It was really great to see a lot of younger faces at Coffs Harbour this year. I’ve been going to the conference for 15 years and there are a lot of people who are sort of the more junior waste coordinators now coming along. It’s great to see that we’re getting that change! We took Selena (one of our awesome consultants) who was probably the youngest person at the event, and even she was really embracing the fact that there were new faces she’d never met before, which is something that’s always fabulous.” – Lacey Webb, Founder & CEO

We may not have made it to sunrise yoga, but we sure got everything else out of this awesome conference.

We’re already counting down until next year. We hope to see you there!