Because households in Tokyo have to put out their waste segregated into three different types in translucent bags: packaging and paper, combustible and non-combustible wastes, at a particular designated place shared by 10-20 households, the discipline of separation at source into appropriate categories is reinforced among the residents of the city. In addition, citizens’ groups collect paper for recycling and local fund raising, and because Japan’s definition of waste is different to that of the EU and many other places, calculating the materials reclamation rate for MSW becomes more difficult.

Japan’s definition of waste is “discarded materials which cannot be sold to other people”. Therefore the statistics for Japan often look different to MSW statistics in other countries, although the non-municipally collected recyclables are often added back in to provide a more comprehensive picture of recycling activities. Therefore, in 2008 for Japan as a whole, with a population of 127 million – more than double that of the UK, France or Italy, for example – there were 2.34m tonnes of recyclables collected by municipalities, 4.51m reclaimed by intermediate treatment and 2.93m collected by citizens’ groups, totalling 9.78m tonnes or 20.3% of Japan’s MSW.

This project focuses on providing technical assistance and enhancing the skills and capacity of staff in Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works, Ministry of Municipalities and Tourism in Kurdistan Region and the municipality staff of the three selected governorates.

ISWA will organise a comprehensive training course program for the staff from the government authorities mentioned above. The first one-week training course will be held for a group of 20 persons in April, in total 60 Iraqi trainees will take this training course program in three one week units at the ISWA headquarters in Vienna.

In this Call for Abstracts you find some detailed information on the Congress and the possibility to submit your abstracts online.

In order to accommodate those who would still like to submit an abstract for ISWA World Congress 2011, the Abstracts Submission Deadline has been extended until 31 March 2011. Full paper submission deadline will be 30 June 2011.

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

The ISWA Beacon Conference on Waste Prevention and Recycling, which will take place on 23 – 24 May 2011 in Vienna, Austria aims to provide information and expertise on the current developments regarding prevention and recycling. Additionally, bringing experts together from all over the world to exchange knowledge and experience and enable them to establish new contacts in their network.

The waste collection business operates in all 10 of Ghana’s regions, but the greatest amount of waste is generated in Accra: 2000 tonnes per day, of which Zoomlion accounts for 70%. Ten small waste companies share the remaining 30%.

Currently, all the waste is being disposed to landfills but the company is planning to divert waste into compost and is building a new enclosed composting facility on the outskirts of Accra. The plant will be opened in late 2011.

The company recognises that despite its rapid growth and success, some further outside expertise may be necessary. It is therefore asking for recently retired waste managers with skills in transporting and route planning, training or finance to volunteer to assist the firm’s ambitious development.

For more information, and to hear the worth-listening-to zoomlion song, please visit www.zoomlionghana.com

The German Federal Environment Agency (UBA), the German Environment Ministry and the Federation of German Waste, Water and Raw Materials Industry Association (BDE) have published a report on waste management and climate change. Launched in Brussels on 31 January 2011, the report assesses the situation in Germany, and gives forecasts for 2020.

The report calls for concerted action in the form of:

• landfill bans - the sooner the better
• action for higher recycling rates
• the application of best available treatment technologies across the board

Since untreated municipal waste is no longer landfilled in Germany, emissions of gases harmful to the climate from waste management have been reduced by a total of approx. 56 million tonnes. The former burden from waste management amounted to about 38 million tonnes CO2 equivalents in 1990, whereas in 2006 the figure had dropped to minus 18 million tonnes. This corresponds to the annual CO2 emissions of 7.7 million passenger vehicles, almost 20 per cent of all vehicles registered in Germany.

These are the results of the study Klimaschutzpotenziale der Abfallwirtschaft (Climate Protection Potential of Waste Management), which was jointly commissioned and presented in Berlin by the Federation of the German Waste, Water and Raw Materials Management Industry (BDE), the Federal Environment Agency and the Federal Environment Ministry. The study takes stock of waste management achievements since 1990 and points to further reduction opportunities in Germany and the EU 27 up to 2020.

Copies of the following reports are available:

• Climate protection potential in the waste management sector - examples: municipal waste and waste wood
• Recycling stops greenhouse gases - the contribution of the recycling and water management industry to climate protection

Even today, some 60 per cent of generated construction and demolition waste is utilised, but predominantly in the form of low-grade material in road construction and backfilling operations. A study commissioned by UBA has now determined the potential for high quality recycling of construction and demolition waste. The results show that by 2020 construction waste could provide one-quarter of the mineral materials needed for building construction.

The utilisation of waste materials represents an important contribution to the protection of natural resources. This especially holds true in regard to high-grade recycling, which envisions to use wastes as secondary material and to achieve the closest possible product cycles and which, consequently, has become a major goal for waste management in the European Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC, Article 11) as well as in the current working draft of the German Recycling Act (KrWG, § 8), which is based on the said directive. The construction industry is of particular significance due to the mass flows it creates and the potentials it incorporates to get materials return into the resource cycle.

Please click here to download the report Determining resource conservation potentials in the recovery of construction waste and formulating recommendations on their use

Local authorities in Wales have the opportunity to compare the financial and environmental costs of different methods of kerbside recycling collections, thanks to a new Eunomia report. Kerbside Collections Options: Wales studies collections in six Welsh local authorities to identify which methods generate the best outcomes.

The Welsh Assembly Government in line with its evidence-based waste policy funded the WRAP-commissioned report. The findings will be shared with local authorities, and used to inform the Municipal Sector Plan for waste.

Click here for copies of the report Kerbside Collections Options: Wales

MEPs proposed new targets on 3 February 2011 for collecting, recycling and re-using waste. They also recommended tougher measures to prevent the export of e-waste to developing countries, where it can pose a health and environment hazard.

For the full story, please visit edie.net

The Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a booklet containing tips and advice for householders on the correct use and disposal of everyday hazardous products. The information in this guide was prepared by the Regional Waste Management Office (RWMO) for Limerick, Clare and Kerry, working on waste prevention by participating in the Local Authority Prevention Network and working in partnership with the region's local authorities.

Copies of the guide A Householders Guide to Hazardous Waste Prevention can be downloaded from the EPA's website

The fifth LIFE+ call for proposals was published on 26 February 2011, with up to EUR267 million available for co-financing of projects under three headings: nature and biodiversity; environment policy and governance; and information and communication. Project proposals should be sent to the relevant national authority no later than 18 July, 2011. National authorities will then send them to the European Commission by 9 September 2011.

For more information on the call, please click here

Information sessions for potential applicants
To coincide with this call, the European Commission is organising Information Sessions in each Member State, to inform potential applicants about the LIFE+ Programme and the requirements for submitting a proposal.

For more information on the workshops, please click here

Art and environmentalism came together at Ecobuild with old swimming suits recycled.
The artwork, a partnership between Speedo and students from the Chelsea College of Art and Design, reuses the now obsolete Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit.

The suit launched in 2008, was worn by the likes of the Olympian Michael Phelps, but in July 2009 the design was banned by swimming bodies.

Instead of throwing away the old suits, students created the artwork Space of Waste at Ecobuild last week.

Research from the universities of Southampton and Reading has found that anaerobic digestion (AD) take-up on farms would have financial benefits for farmers as well as environmental advantages.
The research, carried out by the UK research councils' Rural Economy and Land Use Programme, says that a typical dairy farm could supply most of the electricity it needs to milk the cows, by converting their manure into energy.

The researchers say that relatively small digesters could be economically viable when fed with mixtures of animal slurries and imported wastes or energy crops.

This has the potential to boost the profits of both arable and dairy farms.

Further benefits include reduction of CO2 emissions and could save farmers money on artificial fertilisers.

For the full story, please visit edie.net

Institutional investors could lose trillions of dollars over the coming decades because of continued delay in policy action on climate change and a lack of international coordination, according to international research.

The report, Climate Change Scenarios – Implications for Strategic Asset Allocation, has been released by the consultancy Mercer and a group of global investors representing about $2 trillion in assets under management. It can be found here.

The report analyses the potential financial impacts of climate change on investors’ portfolios identified through a series of four climate change scenarios playing out to 2030.

New York Times blog notes that if you're itching to visit the new advanced waste management plant that will open in 2016 in Copenhagen, be sure to bring your skis. An urban ski park will cover the plant, which will incinerate the waste from five municipalities to generate heat and electricity for 140,000 homes. While their trash is burning inside, locals will be able to take an elevator to the top of the building, then ski down one of three different slopes, graded by difficulty, that jointly run about 5,000 feet.

The new plant will replace a 40-year old incinerator operated by Amagerforbrænding, a waste and energy company. Construction will begin next year. The idea for the ski slope comes from the Bjarke Ingels Group, the Danish architectural firm that took first prize in a design competition for the new plant.

Alongside the ski slope, the plant's smokestack will blow smoke rings each time it fills with 440 pounds of carbon dioxide from flue gas. In a recent interview with National Public Radio, Bjarke Ingels, the founder of the design firm, said the smoke rings would turn "the symbol of pollution into something playful," while reminding residents of the impact of their consumption.