The trustees of the Resource Recovery Forum (RRF) have announced that the forum has ceased activity with immediate effect and will now be closed down.

The RRF provided an independent platform for waste research, information exchange, conferences and a daily news service to members.

Run by Kit Strange (and then his daughter, Kathie Tiffany, after his death in 2011), the subscription-based company had been struggling with a drop in subscribers due to the economic climate and the rise of free information from social media and news websites.

RRF Chairman, Steve Read announced the closure today (15 October), paying tribute to the late Kit Strange, and saying: “RRF has always enjoyed a hardcore of active members but over the last five years, particularly since economic times have become tougher, the number of RRF subscribers has decreased; a trend which started well before Kit’s death.

“At the same time, many of the services we have traditionally offered such as regular daily and weekly news items, interesting conferences and access to reports are now being provided by commercial organisations and publishers on a free or low cost basis. The rise of instant, or nearly instant, social media and the development of effective search engines, have also had an impact on the number of members as RRF offerings are readily available elsewhere or in other ways.

“The trustees have therefore, with great regret, concluded that the RRF is no longer viable and this view was reluctantly endorsed by members of the RRF’s Advisory Committee who met for the last time on 11th October 2012. Activities have now ceased and actions are in hand to close the company down”.

The trustees have said it will do its best to refund the remainder of members’ subscription fees.