For those ones who would like to have a very clear and regularly updated picture of what’s happening in waste management in Brazil, there is one and only solution. The excellent web-site:
http://www.resol.com.br
During my recent visit to Rio I had the luck to meet the person who is behind this thesaurus of information and I was surprised by his efforts and hard work to sustain something that it is almost unbelievable to imagine that is elaborated by just one person, even if this person is a special one.
The site is available in Portuguese, Spanish and English language and it contains from new tenders in Brazil up to handbooks, best practices for several waste management activities, a lot of videos, legislation issues etc.
And most importantly, it is regularly updated on a weekly basis, at least.
Just subscribe with your e-mail and you will receive a weekly newsletter with all the updates.
This is one of the most impressive portals I have seen for waste management and it becomes much more impressive when you think that just one person is really delivering this content.
My Congratulations to Jose Henrique Penido, this is a real masterpiece. But it is also a serious indication that in Brazil there are very capable scientists and practitioners that can undertake the effort to upgrade waste management conditions and drove the country out of the dumpsites.
http://www.resol.com.br a site worth to visit!
5.27.2010
5.24.2010
A great event in Netherlands
Last week I was in Leeuwarden, Netherlands for the ISWA Beacon Conference on Waste Prevention, organized by NVRD, the Dutch National member of ISWA.
I had the honor and the pleasure to chair the first day of the conference and to watch carefully the second one. So allow me to say, that this was one of the most interesting conferences I have ever participated.
For a so difficult as well as complex issue as waste prevention is, there was a remarkable effective combination of theory and practice, in a way that I consider should be emblematic for ISWA’s events.
Very careful selection of high quality speakers, topics that cover the whole spectrum of waste prevention, intensive interaction between participants - speakers and a fruitful networking were just some of the advantages.
Beside them, a very warm hospitality and well organized events allowed participants to spend some happy time between the intensive conference sessions.
As for the content, the issues of behavioral science were well balanced with the changes required on the industrial level in order to achieve waste prevention in practice. Psychology, sociology and communication science should be combined with an industrial revolution (eco-design) in order to close the cycle of a lot of materials and achieve minimum environmental impacts from production and consumption of products.
I have to write my special thanks to all NVRD people for their hard efforts and the successful event. NVRD is really an organization that is going up, getting more mature as well as more effective, as I had the opportunity to understand with my eyes. Needless to say that it was a great honor for me to be one of the speakers in its annual congress.
Maarten, Eric my congratulations are a least recognition for your efforts. Participants’ comments and compliments are more than enough to encourage you, NVRD and ISWA to go on with such events.
keep walking guys, we need more such initiatives
I had the honor and the pleasure to chair the first day of the conference and to watch carefully the second one. So allow me to say, that this was one of the most interesting conferences I have ever participated.
For a so difficult as well as complex issue as waste prevention is, there was a remarkable effective combination of theory and practice, in a way that I consider should be emblematic for ISWA’s events.
Very careful selection of high quality speakers, topics that cover the whole spectrum of waste prevention, intensive interaction between participants - speakers and a fruitful networking were just some of the advantages.
Beside them, a very warm hospitality and well organized events allowed participants to spend some happy time between the intensive conference sessions.
As for the content, the issues of behavioral science were well balanced with the changes required on the industrial level in order to achieve waste prevention in practice. Psychology, sociology and communication science should be combined with an industrial revolution (eco-design) in order to close the cycle of a lot of materials and achieve minimum environmental impacts from production and consumption of products.
I have to write my special thanks to all NVRD people for their hard efforts and the successful event. NVRD is really an organization that is going up, getting more mature as well as more effective, as I had the opportunity to understand with my eyes. Needless to say that it was a great honor for me to be one of the speakers in its annual congress.
Maarten, Eric my congratulations are a least recognition for your efforts. Participants’ comments and compliments are more than enough to encourage you, NVRD and ISWA to go on with such events.
keep walking guys, we need more such initiatives
5.06.2010
Annual Waste Report for Italy
This a contribution by my good friend David Newman - thanks a lot David this is realy interesting
Last week the government institute for the environment in Italy, called ISPRA, published its annual Waste Report, using data from 2008.
There are some really interesting developments I wanted to share with your readers.
Firstly, for the first time in living memory, the amount of total MSW produced has decreased. Only a small total decline, some 0,2%, but in per capita terms a significant 2%. This is actually the third year that per capita waste production declines, while being the first year that this reduction has had an impact on the overall national figures.
The decline is evidently due to a reduction in consumption, that's a no-brainer. But we should take into account the last three years' per capita decline and part of the reason for this may lie in the prevention and reduction policies being enacted in some regions.
Secondly, while the amount of waste produced declines, the amount collected separately for material recovery increases again; an overall level of 30,6% of all Italian MSW in now collected separately and sent to reovery. This is indeed a substantial result; regions in northern Italy have attained levels over 50%, including densely populated industral regions like Lombardy, Piemonte, Veneto. Once again the south of Italy shows how under-developed it is, with overall recovery levels of 15% circa. In between sit the central regions like Tuscany, Marche, Umbria, Abruzzo.
Note the great strides ahead made by the Region of Sardegna where overall recycling levels have achieved nearly 40%.
Thirdly, where the recovery levels are highest is where the regions have enacted policies of separate collection of organic household waste. The 2008 figures show an increase in organic waste collection on 2007 of over 14%, to circa 3.340.000 tons. Organic waste now accounts for 34% of all the recycled waste collected, the largest single fraction, and with paper and cardboard, over 60% of all recovered waste.
This means that Italy is rapidly heading towards the goals of the Landfill Directive in terms of reducing organic waste to landfill.
Indeed the other good news in that the number of landfills has declined again, while the number of composting plants increased to 229.
Landfills still account for 44% of all our MSW disposal (about 32.000.000 tons) though in continuous decline; composting separate waste 7%; MBT 22% (a small reduction on 2007) and incineration still at 11%. The rest is recycled.
The report contains a load of informaion regarding the economics of the waste industry in Italy, as well as a comparison with EU countries.
You can obtain this very detailed and well presented report in Italian from the website www.atiaiswa.it in the next few days or from the ISPRA website now www.isprambiente.it
Last week the government institute for the environment in Italy, called ISPRA, published its annual Waste Report, using data from 2008.
There are some really interesting developments I wanted to share with your readers.
Firstly, for the first time in living memory, the amount of total MSW produced has decreased. Only a small total decline, some 0,2%, but in per capita terms a significant 2%. This is actually the third year that per capita waste production declines, while being the first year that this reduction has had an impact on the overall national figures.
The decline is evidently due to a reduction in consumption, that's a no-brainer. But we should take into account the last three years' per capita decline and part of the reason for this may lie in the prevention and reduction policies being enacted in some regions.
Secondly, while the amount of waste produced declines, the amount collected separately for material recovery increases again; an overall level of 30,6% of all Italian MSW in now collected separately and sent to reovery. This is indeed a substantial result; regions in northern Italy have attained levels over 50%, including densely populated industral regions like Lombardy, Piemonte, Veneto. Once again the south of Italy shows how under-developed it is, with overall recovery levels of 15% circa. In between sit the central regions like Tuscany, Marche, Umbria, Abruzzo.
Note the great strides ahead made by the Region of Sardegna where overall recycling levels have achieved nearly 40%.
Thirdly, where the recovery levels are highest is where the regions have enacted policies of separate collection of organic household waste. The 2008 figures show an increase in organic waste collection on 2007 of over 14%, to circa 3.340.000 tons. Organic waste now accounts for 34% of all the recycled waste collected, the largest single fraction, and with paper and cardboard, over 60% of all recovered waste.
This means that Italy is rapidly heading towards the goals of the Landfill Directive in terms of reducing organic waste to landfill.
Indeed the other good news in that the number of landfills has declined again, while the number of composting plants increased to 229.
Landfills still account for 44% of all our MSW disposal (about 32.000.000 tons) though in continuous decline; composting separate waste 7%; MBT 22% (a small reduction on 2007) and incineration still at 11%. The rest is recycled.
The report contains a load of informaion regarding the economics of the waste industry in Italy, as well as a comparison with EU countries.
You can obtain this very detailed and well presented report in Italian from the website www.atiaiswa.it in the next few days or from the ISPRA website now www.isprambiente.it
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