The 2016 ISWA’s Annual Congress is going to take place in September 19-21 at Novi Sad, Serbia. More than a 1000 academics and professionals of the waste management and recycling industry will be gathered and discuss solutions on the different localised waste management problems for four days.
The final programme has been already announced and it includes an impressive collection of presentations and papers. You can find it here. ISWA’s president David Newman considers the congress a great opportunity to discuss questions like the following “How will Southeast Europe reach the standards and goals of waste management set out in the EU directive? We know that countries such as Austria, Sweden, Netherlands, Japan, etc. took over 30 years to reach high levels of waste management that they currently have. Can Southeast Europe reduce this deadline to a decade? How and at what cost? How will this be financed? Which technologies will be used? What type of laws and regulations are needed to achieve that? How will authorities communicate to citizens the choices before them?”.
Goran Vujic, the executive director of SeSWA, the Serbian member of ISWA, says that “Proper consideration of all the solutions, regardless of their efficiency and level of harmonization with the strictest environmental standards is of utmost importance for decision-makers. ISWA WORLD CONGRESS 2016 will bring together all the parties involved in the waste management process, which is a unique opportunity for exchange of knowledge and experience, on the path to creating sustainable systems that will lead to an upward trend in development and protection of environment.”
One of the highlights of the conference will be the first day’s plenary session where a panel of experts will discuss about the disruption in the waste management and recycling industry. The rise of the fourth Industrial Revolution, the urgent need to mitigate Climate Change and the emergence of Circular Economy business models are creating a new rapidly changing landscape where innovation becomes a cornerstone for the waste management and recycling sector. What is the future of the industry within the fourth Industrial Revolution? How Climate Change agreements and funding boost innovation in waste management and recycling? Why Circular Economy makes communication a central element of each and every waste management activity? How can we practically intervene to deliver improvements in both developed and developing countries? What is the role of science in waste management and recycling and what should we expect from the scientific advances?
We should seriously consider implementing programs for zero waste cities around the world. Virtualisation of the management chain and impacts on the sustainability of the sector through interactive networks to Go to format the circular economy in terms of a new relationship with the land and natural resources , where certainly the idea of a zero territorio ( emissions , waste , and local economy ) will be the basis for a new civilizational movement.