The resources and waste sector is in a period of significant change. Ahead of ISWA 2026 in London next month, Darrel Moore explores the opportunities this global event offers to UK waste professionals.
When the ISWA World Congress arrives in London this November, it will bring global experience to a UK sector under pressure to deliver.
With industry-leading speakers already confirmed, including Cllr Gareth Roberts, Chair of Environment Group London Assembly, the Head of Waste Strategy at the Welsh Government Dr Andy Rees OBE, and Chair of Zero Waste Scotland Dominic Fries, the event will showcase world-class UK expertise.
For CIWM members, it is a rare opportunity to compare approaches with international counterparts, build partnerships and show how the UK can help shape the next generation of resource and waste systems.
The resources and waste sector is being asked to solve problems that once sat in separate policy boxes: cut emissions, keep materials in use, protect public health, deliver reliable local services, and attract long-term investment.
Those demands are arriving together, giving the ISWA World Congress 2026 particular and pressing relevance. Hosted by CIWM at the QEII Centre in London from 9 to 11 November, the Congress returns to the UK for the first time in three decades.
A once-in-a-generation opportunity, it will bring government, local authorities, operators, manufacturers, investors, advisers and technology providers into the heart of Westminster.
For CIWM members, this is not simply an international event taking place in the UK; it’s a chance to meet global counterparts without travelling to a succession of overseas events, test UK decisions against experience from other markets, and put UK innovation and delivery experience in front of an international audience.
The gathering has real weight. Global municipal waste generation is projected to rise from 2.1bn tonnes in 2023 to 3.8bn tonnes by 2050. Behind those figures sit urgent questions about health, the major global pollution, cost and access to essential services.
The UK has its own immediate delivery agenda. Simpler Recycling requirements for household collections came into force in England in March 2026, with transitional arrangements for some authorities.
Across the UK, Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) is changing obligations, data requirements and financial flows. Deposit return schemes (DRS), food waste, difficult materials, infrastructure and the challenge of waste crime remain firmly on the agenda.
The value of an international congress is not that another city’s system can be copied. It is that it may reveal a better contract model, an overlooked risk or a more honest measure of success.
UK delegates can bring those insights home, while sharing what the sector here has learned from policy reform, service delivery, engineering and resource innovation.
Five foundations, one connected system
The programme is organised around five foundations: human rights, political commitment, waste planning and service delivery, the economics of waste and resource management, and the circular economy.
That structure reflects how services work. A collection reform can have clear environmental aims and still struggle if vehicles, treatment capacity, communications or funding fall out of step. A reuse model can win support and then stall because returns are inconvenient.
Delegates can move between municipal leadership, core services, challenging material streams, behaviour change, EPR, finance and investment, health and safety, innovation and technology, organic waste, energy from waste, landfill best practice and more.
The emphasis is practical. Fewer than 5% of submitted technical abstracts were categorised as primarily academic. The technical programme is peer-reviewed, with case studies and operational experience sitting alongside strategic debate.
A global programme with a UK purpose
The international scope is part of the Congress’s value to the UK, rather than a reason to see it as remote. Councils, operators and producers rarely have the opportunity to compare decisions directly with peers working under different policy frameworks, market conditions, and infrastructure constraints.
That comparison works in both directions. Other cities and regions offer lessons in service design, procurement, data, contract incentives and infrastructure renewal.
In return, the UK sector can demonstrate its expertise, introduce international delegates to UK solutions and build relationships that continue beyond the three days.
CIWM’s role as host gives members an opportunity to shape those conversations. Credible leadership does not suggest that every UK answer is settled. It shows what is working, is candid about what remains difficult and contributes evidence others can adapt.
The human rights foundation begins with a direct principle: everyone should be free from the harmful effects of waste. The programme connects that idea to health and safety, hazardous waste, pollution prevention, dumping and open burning, and a just transition. These issues are not remote from UK services. Frontline safety, illegal dumping and unequal access to good local environments remain concerns.
UK firms also operate through global supply chains; the health and environmental cost of recovering materials overseas belongs in any honest account of circularity.
Political commitment supplies the next layer. Strategies set direction, but regulation, enforcement, education and public engagement determine what happens on the ground.
Comparing national approaches can also help CIWM members explain the sector’s public value: clean streets, dependable collections and safe treatment are essential infrastructure.
The delivery challenge
Waste planning and service delivery occupy a large share of the programme. That should attract UK local authorities and partners redesigning services while managing tight budgets, workforce pressure, new material streams and high public expectations.
Food waste collections alone raise questions about participation, containers, vehicles, contamination, treatment capacity and communication. International examples can help delegates compare how different systems manage service design, partnerships, infrastructure and public behaviour.
The greatest value will come from candour: the forecast that proved optimistic, the technology that needed more support or the campaign that reached the wrong audience. Those details help practitioners to decide what can genuinely be adapted at home.
Circular models that work
Circular economy sessions will move from strategic ambition and policy decisions to practical choices about products, services and material flows. The programme includes material streams, EPR, plastics, circular economy practice and circular business models.
Sessions will compare circular economy practice across different geographies, bringing practical examples from the Global North and Global South and showing why approaches must be adapted to local conditions.
That matters to UK producers, retailers, recyclers and councils. Packaging responsibility is changing the relationship between design decisions and end-of-life costs. Deposit return will require coordination across producers, retailers, logistics providers and recyclers.
Difficult materials bring their own collection and processing challenges. Reuse needs to be more than an appealing pilot. Successful systems require convenient returns, washing capacity, storage, transport, shared standards and a clear commercial case. The practical question is which models can survive normal operating conditions.
The strongest reason to attend is the chance to connect decisions too often discussed separately.
Climate, technology and investment
Climate action cuts across all five foundations. The programme includes organic waste, anaerobic digestion, climate finance, energy from waste, landfill best practice, pollution prevention, and innovation and technology.
The test is how an intervention performs in practice. Technology and infrastructure should deliver clearer outcomes: safer work, better material quality, lower emissions, more resilient services or stronger value, rather than add complexity without solving a defined problem.
Every strategy also reaches questions of cost, risk and return. Collection reform, reprocessing, organics capacity and reuse systems require investment. Public bodies need adaptable, accountable contracts. Businesses need enough certainty to back long-term assets. Investors need reliable evidence and a credible route to revenue.
Global perspectives can broaden the options. The most useful examples will show how risks were allocated, affordability protected and original assumptions adjusted.
Three days with a purpose and legacy
The strongest reason to attend is the chance to connect decisions too often discussed separately. Service quality affects economic wellbeing and public trust. Product design affects collection costs. Data affects investment. Safety and fairness affect whether change deserves support.
Delegates should leave with a clearer sense of which ideas can travel, which questions to ask suppliers and partners, and where collaboration could turn a promising approach into normal practice. A clear legacy statement highlighting the key global challenges and mechanisms for change will be published.
For CIWM members, the Congress brings together three things that are difficult to find in one place: global expertise, a peer network with a strong UK presence and a platform on which to demonstrate what the UK sector can contribute.
The world is coming to Westminster to compare notes. The UK sector should be part of that exchange.
