Welcome 2024!

2024 will be a year of great events:
In May (15th to 17th), the seventh Symposium on Urban Mining and Circular Economy (SUM 2024, www.sumsymposium.it) will be held in Capri, Italy. Moreover, the 10th VENICE symposium on energy from biomass and waste (www.venicesymposium.it) will be organized during the third week of November in 2024.

 

 

Continously updated information on these events and all other activities will be available on our website.


IWWG Award 'Waste Vision 2100'

The International Waste Working Group (IWWG) proudly presents the third call for the IWWG-award “Waste-Visions 2100“!

Early career researchers and scientists developing groundbreaking ideas and innovative solutions for big challenges in waste management are welcome to apply for this grant! The grant includes free IWWG membership for one year, free entrance to the Sardinia Symposium 2023, support of travel costs to the conference (300 for Europeans, 700 outside Europe).

The winner of the award is invited to orally present his/her thesis/idea at the Sardinia Symposium 2023 in a 10-min time slot during the opening session or closing session. Moreover, a poster highlighting the vision/groundbreaking idea prepared by the winner will be exhibited during the entire conference.

Please submit the requested documents (see under the link below) not later than 26th May 2023, 12.00 pm, to info@iwwg.eu!

The winner will be selected by a jury consisting of members of the IWWG-Managing Board, and will be informed at the end of July 2023 about the further procedure.

For more information click here.


Keynote monthly lectures - FOOD for BRAIN

The International Waste Working Group (IWWG) is organizing a series of monthly online keynote lectures on hot topics of waste management; for IWWG members and all others interested in these hot topics.

Selected, highly respected and acclaimed experts will present the current status on their field of expertise; people who have been at the first line, with different backgrounds and positions, have valuable knowledge and experience that it is really worth sharing and spreading, providing food for brain.

The lectures are scheduled monthly and will last 1 hour, including time for questions and discussion.

Interested? Click here for an overview on the upcoming lectures. To access past lectures click here.

For more and detailed information please contact the IWWG secretariat (info(at)iwwg(dot)eu)


IWWG Award 'Waste Vision 2100'

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Evaluation Committee, we are pleased to announce the winner of the 2021 IWWG Award ‘Waste Vision 2100’. This has been granted to Pedro Cesar Pereira Gonçalves for his thesis work 'Recycling of waste printed circuit boards: non-destructive characterization and mechanical processing operations'. Mr. Pedro Gonçalves is a Mining Engineer, MSc in Geometallurgy and Mineral Processing. He has experience with development and collaboration in technological innovation projects in the mining sector, lean manufacturing, and circular economy. Solid knowledge in agile project management and TRL methodology for project analysis. During his professional carreer he focused on innovative solution projects within the mining industry.

The thesis of Mr. Pedro Gonçalves is significant since the applied methods and models provide information that are of great help to better understand the behavior of composite particles and propose efficient process flowsheets to recover valuable materials for recycling purpose with less environmental footprint. This work filled the important research gaps applicable to any kinds of heterogeneous waste recycling, and has been highly acknowledged by other researchers.


IWWG President participation in 2021 P4G Seoul Summit

IWWG President, Evangelos Gidarakos, Emeritus Professor of the Technical University of Crete, participated as a speaker at the 2021 P4G Seoul Summit on Green Growth and Global Targets 2030, under the auspices of the Korean Ministry of the Environment, in the section entitled "Measures of a circular economy towards a zero waste society", on 31.05. 2021.

P4G is a global initiative launched in 2017 to manage the great challenges humanity faces and in particular climate change and movement towards the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. P4G explores, cultivates and supports innovative business collaboration models, governments and societies in the areas of sustainable development, water and waste management, energy, sustainability and responsible consumption and production.

The specific thematic unit of the Ministry of Environment on "Measures of circular economy towards a zero waste society" will present innovative actions carried out in various countries and sectors, concerning circular economy, with special emphasis on the production of zero waste. Innovative models that play a critical role in a sustainable circular economy will be presented during the session. Presentations and discussion with government, industry and society representatives will contribute to the development of strategies to achieve a "zero-waste future" in the context of climate change by 2050.

For the agenda of the Summit [click here].


Sardinia Academy on Waste Management

We are glad to inform you of the new initiative organised and promoted by the IWWG: the Sardinia Academy on Waste Management.

The academy consist of a series of weekly webinars devoted to different WM topics (e.g. Basics of Sustainable landfilling, Leachate treatment, HELP Model, Landfill Mining, Landfill gas modelling, Composting design, Anaerobic Digestion, In situ aeration, Thermal treatment, WEEE management,  etc.).
These webinars will be held by leading international experts, sharing their first-class knowledge and addressing topics of widespread interest. The courses are suited to beginners and to anyone interested in deepening knowledge on fundamental WM topics which will be extensively discussed also during the forthcoming SARDINIA symposium.

The webinars will be scheduled every Thursday morning and will last 3 hours, including ample time for questions and discussion.

Interested?

The Programme of webinars will be available soon.

For more and detailed information please contact the IWWG secretariat (info@iwwg.eu)


 

IWWG Short Communications

We are living in difficult and hard times. In so many countries social contacts have been restricted to a minimum due to the pandemic crisis caused by COVID-19. Schools and universities have been closed down and many of us are working in home office at present. In these times it is worth to remind that we are not alone. By this series of short communications, written by IWWG Board or SAP members, a personal point of view as well as latest news and data is provided. By this means we may get an impression about life in different parts of the world under the impact of the pandemic crisis.

Vol.-I, by Prof. Pinjing He, Tongji University, Shanghai, China (22.03.2020)

Vol.-II, by Prof. Evangelos Gidarakos and Dr. Maria Aivalioti, Technical University of Crete, Greece (28.03.2020)

Vol.-III, by Anna Tsybina, Administrator of the IWWG Regional Branch for Russia and NIS (02.04.2020)

Vol.-IV, by Maria Cristina Lavagnolo and Alberto Pivato, DICEA-University of Padova, Italy (03.04.2020)

Vol.-V, by Jan Slavik, Jan Evangelista Purkyne University, Czech Republic (14.04.2020)

Vol.-VI, compiled by Dr Robert Gregory, Gregory Environmental Consulting Ltd., UK (14.04.2020)

Vol.-VII, by Prof. Rainer Stegmann, Hamburg University of Technology, Germany (20.04.2020)

Vol.-VIII, by Howard Robinson, Phoenix Engineering, United Kingdom (28.04.2020)

Vol.-IX, by Alexandre R. Cabral, Sherbrooke University, Canada (05.05.2020)

Vol.-X, by Giulliana Mondelli, Federal University of ABC, Santo André-SP, Brazil (30.04.2020)

Vol.-XI, IWWG activities in 2021 (21.05.2021)


 

IWWG Award 'Waste Vision 2100'

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Evaluation Committee, we are pleased to announce the winner of the 2019 IWWG Award ‘Waste Vision 2100’. This has been granted to Dr. Vasiliki Savvilotidou, a principal research engineer at the Laboratory of Toxic and Hazardous Waste Management, Technical University of Crete, Greece. Dr. Savvilotidou has 7-years laboratory experience in innovative recycling of electrical and electronic equipment and received her Ph.D. for the research on the ‘Development of recycling techniques in 1st and 2nd generation waste photovoltaic panels’ in 2019.

With her thesis she developed groundbreaking ideas and innovative solutions in the very complex and emerging topic of management of photovoltaic waste. In particular, she investigated approaches for the recovery of bulk and critical raw materials as well as reuse options of glass and plastic in the construction sector. By her thesis she could demonstrate that metal, glass and plastic parts consisting more than 90% of P/V panels can be reused, recovered or recycled towards an integrated sustainable management of waste P/V panels, indicating potential future applications.


 

DETRITUS

New IWWG journal: DETRITUS

We are proud to announce that a new Journal has been launched, as a second official journal of IWWG-International Waste Working Group, further to Waste Management.

The new Journal, called Detritus, will appear quarterly starting from March 2018 and wishes to be more open to the society, focusing on recovering of residual resources and amplifying the “waste management” concept by opening to other disciplines related to waste (e.g. earth science, applied microbiology, chemistry, environmental protection, social sciences, architecture, art, law, etc.).

The multidisciplinarity of the Journal will be reflected by the Editorial Board (Editor in Chief, Associate Editors, IWWG Strategic Editorial Committee, and Editorial Advisory Board).

Raffaello Cossu will serve as the Editor in Chief. The Managing Editor will be Paola Pizzardini, former Managing Editor of Waste Management. The Associate Editors are the following:

  • Damià Barcelo (ICRA Catalan Institute for Water Research, Barcelona)
  • Pierre Hennebert (INERIS-Institut national de l'environnement industriel et des risques, France)
  • Anders Lagerkvist (Lulea University, Sweden)
  • Michael Nelles (University of Rostock, Germany)
  • Mohamed Osmani (Loughborough University, UK)
  • Roland Pomberger (Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Austria)
  • Marco Ragazzi (University of Trento, Italy)
  • Marco Ritzkowski (Hamburg University of Technology)
  • Howard Robinson (Phoenix Engineering, UK)
  • Rainer Stegmann (Hamburg University of Technology)
  • Sirintornthep Towprayoon (King Monkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand)
  • Hans van der Sloot (Consultant, Previously Head of ECN Environmental Unit, The Netherlands),
  • Francesco Vegliò (University of L’Aquila, Italy)
  • Ian Williams (University of Southampton, UK)
  • Jonathan Wong (Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong)
  • Hideki Yoshida (Muroran Institute of Technology, Japan)
  • Liangtong Tony Zhan (Zheijangu University, China)
  • Christian Zurbruegg (Eawag/Sandec, Switzerland)

To visit the official website of the Journal click here.


30 Years Sardinia Symposium

SARDINIA 2017

The sixteenth edition of the Sardinia Symposium, organized by the IWWG - International Waste Working Group, was held in Forte Village, Santa Margherita di Pula (Cagliari) Italy, from October 2nd to October 6th, 2017.

To read the full report click here.


Sardinian Stories

SARDINIA 2013

Howard Robinson reports from the 14th International Waste Management and Landfilling Symposium.

To read the article click here.


IWWG C&D Task Group Leader steers the creation of a new BSI Standard on construction waste reduction

The British Standards Institution (BSI) has launched a new standard (BS 8895) that can help reduce waste across the design stages of building and refurbishment projects. BS 8895 has been developed by a committee of leading industry experts and was chaired by Mohamed Osmani, the IWWG Construction and Demolition Task Group Leader.

For further information, please read the press release.


IWWG members have free access to conference papers

Being a member to the IWWG is associated with remarkable benefits, such as discounts on the registration fees for seminars or conferences. From the scientific point of view, however, the free access to around 5,000 conference papers of IWWG events from the past 10 years is obviously outstanding. Furthermore, a comfortable 'search-in-papers' function allows for the selection of particular papers through keywords, title and/or author information. To date, ~ 4,000 papers are available here and the number will be further increased. This service is reserved for IWWG members only.


New Monograph released

SUSTAINABLE LANDFILLING

A new Monograph, edited by Hans van der Sloot and Raffaello Cossu, has been published and is available for purchase. 

For further information click here.