The biggest event in the environmental calendar is nearly here, and we are delighted to confirm that IPL Brightgreen will be exhibiting at the Environmental Services and Solutions Expo (ESS Expo) at the NEC Birmingham on 16 and 17 September 2026.
You will find us at stand CT-F274. Write it down, screenshot it, tattoo it on your arm if you must. We will be there both days, and we would genuinely love to see you.
ESS Expo 2026, RWM, or both?
A quick word on names, because the industry loves an acronym. ESS Expo 2026 is the umbrella event bringing together seven co located shows under one roof, and within it sits RWM, the Resource and Waste Management Expo. For many of us who have been in this sector a while, it will always simply be RWM: the show where the waste, recycling and resource world gathers every year to talk shop, compare notes and walk far more steps than anticipated.
Whatever you call it, the numbers speak for themselves. More than 16,000 professionals, over 700 exhibitors and hundreds of expert speakers, all under one very large roof. If you work anywhere near waste, recycling or the circular economy, this is the two days of the year when the entire industry is in the same building. And rather pleasingly, it lands right in the middle of Recycle Week 2026. Good planning, that.
Why visit stand CT-F274? Two words: buy back
Here is the conversation we most want to have at the show, and it is one that could genuinely change how your business handles its plastic waste.
If you are a producer or user of rigid polypropylene or HDPE, the chances are you are generating waste material somewhere in your operation. Offcuts, rejects, obsolete stock, end of life products, post use returns. Material that too often ends up as a cost: a skip to fill, a haulier to pay, a disposal invoice to swallow.
Our buy back scheme turns that on its head. Rather than paying to get rid of your waste PP and HDPE, we buy it from you. That material comes to our Castleford facility, where it is sorted, washed, reprocessed and remanufactured into high quality recycled material that goes straight back into productive use.
The benefits stack up quickly:
Your waste becomes revenue.
A cost line becomes an income line. Your finance team will like this bit.
Your carbon footprint shrinks.
Material recycled mechanically carries a substantially lower carbon footprint than virgin polymer, and diverting it from incineration or landfill strengthens your own sustainability reporting.
Your circularity story becomes real.
With extended producer responsibility, plastic packaging tax and customer scrutiny all tightening, being able to demonstrate genuine closed loop credentials is no longer a nice to have. It is commercial armour.
It is simple.
We handle the logistics, the processing and the paperwork. You supply the material. That is rather the point.
Come and meet Samantha Smallwood
Samantha.smallwood@iplschoeller.com
07874867884
The person you want to talk to is Samantha Smallwood, who leads procurement for buy back at IPL Brightgreen. Samantha knows this material inside out: what we can take, what it is worth, how the logistics work, and how to structure an arrangement that suits your volumes and your operation, whether you are producing a few tonnes a month or a few hundred.
Bring your questions, bring a sample if you like, and bring a rough idea of what material you are currently paying to dispose of. Samantha will do the rest. Fair warning: she is very good, and you may leave the stand wondering why you have been paying to throw money in a skip.
If you want to guarantee a time slot rather than take your chances with the show floor crowds, get in touch ahead of the event and we will book you in.
Why IPL Brightgreen?
We appreciate you have options, so here is our honest pitch.
IPL Brightgreen is one of the UK market leaders in rigid PP and HDPE recycling and remanufacturing. From our site in Castleford, West Yorkshire, we take in waste polymer and turn it into consistent, high quality recycled material, day in, day out, at genuine commercial scale. This is not a pilot plant or a promise. It is proven infrastructure with the capacity, the quality systems and the technical expertise to back it up.
What sets us apart is that we sit on both sides of the loop. As a recycler and a remanufacturer, we understand exactly what the material needs to do at the other end, because we use it ourselves. That means rigorous quality standards, full traceability, and recycled content claims you can stand behind without crossing your fingers.
And because we are plastics people through and through, we speak your language. No jargon, no greenwash, no vague promises. Just straightforward answers about what your material is worth and what we can do with it.
The details
What: ESS Expo 2026, incorporating RWM
When: Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 September 2026
Where: NEC Birmingham
Find us: St and CT-F274
Ask for: Samantha Smallwood, if buy back is on your agenda
Tickets are free, so there really is no excuse. Register through the ESS Expo 2026 website, plan your route to CT-F274, and come and talk to us about turning your plastic waste into something far more useful.
See you in September.
