What is the future of the industry within the fourth industrial revolution? How do climate change agreements and a funding boost innovation in waste management and recycling? Why does circular economy make communication a central element of every waste management activity? How can we practically intervene to deliver improvements in both developed and developing countries? What is the role of science? Visitors and participants at the three-day ISWA 2016 World Congress will be able to attend a discussion at the opening session on September 19.
The annual event of the International Solid Waste Association in Novi Sad in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina will be an opportunity to share knowledge on state-of-the-art waste management solutions, organizers said.
“The complexity of waste management is best viewed by the fact that there are no two countries with an identical mechanism for waste collection and treatment. Individual solutions in Southeast Europe take on additional importance when accounting for the fact that they were implemented in environments with insufficiently developed economies,“ said Goran Vujić, executive director of Serbian Solid Waste Association (SeSWA), which hosts the congress.
Challenges and ways of achieving success in the sector will be covered in dozens of sessions in eight rooms. Young professionals will discuss the issue of low public participation in waste management programmes. Scholars and industry representatives prepared papers on extended producer responsibility, thermal waste, life-cycle modeling and specific topics for world regions, the announcement adds. Other subjects include energy recovery, landfill mining, engineering, and leachate as well as healthcare and low-cost bio-waste treatment. An interested audience will hear examples of initiatives of Serbian ministries in Užice, Subotica, Pančevo and elsewhere.
“As you will read in our latest report on the Pathway to Closing Open Dumps, where communities live in their waste there will usually be political corruption and corporate tax avoidance which deprives these communities of their ability to invest in solutions. We have all the technologies, but where we don’t have the laws, enforcement, and finance, the technologies become irrelevant,” said David Newman, the outgoing head of ISWA who will pass over the presidency to Antonis Mavropoulos at the event.
“Don’t believe the most of the claims to sustainability made by corporations selling goods and services into global markets. So when you read that such and such a corporation is ’environmentally friendly’ go look behind the scenes. You will find massive tax avoidance from many of them, depriving communities of spending power, and lobbying against new legislation.“
Vujić: The complexity of waste management is best viewed by the fact that there are no two countries with an identical mechanism for waste collection and treatment.
Thomas Wlaschiha, who plays Jaqen H’ghar in one of the most watched shows on television – Game of Thrones, will be the moderator of the plenary panel discussion at ISWA World Congress, as an advocate of environmental issues.
This is the first time the industry’s congress is held in Southeastern Europe. Organizers announced the participation of more than one thousand experts and representatives of global corporations.
