The WMRAS-NEA Waste Management Symposium was held at the Marina Mandarin, Singapore on 5 July 2011 to examine some of the waste management challenges affecting Singapore and the wider Southeast Asian region.

Guah Eng Hock, the ISWA Board representative for the Southeast Asian regional development network and Chairman of the Waste Management and Recycling Association of Singapore (WMRAS), spoke on the theme of Creating a Vibrant Waste Management Industry in Singapore.

Andrew Tan, CEO of the National Environment Agency (NEA) in his presentation, Developments and Opportunities in Waste Management, showed how advanced Singapore’s waste management system was in comparison to the rest of Southeast Asia. Singapore is spending $35m over three years on waste related R&D projects with 63 projects currently under way.

While Singapore currently recycles 58% of its waste, under the Singapore Sustainable Development Blueprint, by 2030 it aims to recycle 70%.

Increasingly pneumatic collection systems are being used, including the separation of recyclables. But where the old single stream chute system is used in public housing

ISWA Managing Director Hermann Koller was invited as a guest of honour to the Inauguration of the first Centre for Waste Management in India.

The official inauguration ceremony of this first academic institute for Waste Management in India took place on 7 June 2011 at the University of Chennai.

More than 200 participants witnessed this event, which is a milestone in waste management matters in India. This centre aims to become the know-how centre and a driver for research and development activities concerning waste management in India.

More than 3,000 participants from 183 countries attended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference, which took place in Bonn from 6 – 17 June 2011.

ISWA holds the official status as an Observer Organisation of the UNFCCC, and was represented with a delegation consisting of Erik de Baedts (Board Member), Gary Crawford (Chair of the Working Group on Climate Change), Freek van Eijk (Member of the Action Plan Focus Group), Hermann Koller (Managing Director) and Gerfried Habenicht (Communications Manager).

The members of the ISWA delegation endeavoured to make sustainable waste management – and its positive impact on our climate – an issue at the conference and in the UNFCCC process.

The basis of these activities is a comprehensive lobbying action plan, which ISWA has developed with the aim to make climate funds available for investments in sustainable waste management and recycling.

Soon you will also be able to find on the ISWA publications webpage articles grouped into special topics such as Landfill, Energy Recovery, Healthcare Waste, et cetera. In the meantime, as a taster you can access articles directly from WM&R Review Paper Collection, and for the next three months open access is available to the most cited articles of 2010, here

On 3 and 4 November 2011, leading international experts from the waste-to-energy sector will be gathering in Malmö, Sweden for the 7th edition of the ISWA Beacon Conference on Waste-to-Energy/Thermal Treatment.

An exclusive panel of speakers will assess, among others, the following subjects:

• The energy efficiency directive
• The final guideline concerning the application of the energy efficiency formula for the R1/D10 criteria
• Determination of the fossil share in combustible waste
• Treatment capacity and cross-boundary waste flows in Europe
• Large scale gasifier on waste – realistic or just a fancy dream?

For further information on Conference topics, please download the preliminary programme or visit the conference website.

A technical visit related to residue handling and a reception and conference dinner round up the event programme. Two days with plenty of opportunities to network and to exchange knowledge with other people in the Waste-to-Energy sector.

Click here for the Preliminary Programme
and Online Registration

The European Commission has called for more research and evaluation to fully understand the best way to maximise benefits from the redesign of plastics and the development of biodegradable alternatives.

Food Production Daily reports that in a briefing note 'Plastic waste: redesign and biodegradability', the directorate explores how an unthinking pursuit of so-called eco-plastics and eco-design may actually cause more harm than good to the environment.

The unknown effects of biodegradable plastics on flora and fauna as well as the potential consequences on food prices by using crops such as corn or soya for bioplastic feedstock are some of the variables that need to be weighed up in this highly complex environmental equation.

The brief said that more accurate and regionally developed forecasts are need on plastic waste, waste management and the eco-impact of the materials.

Conducting the research would allow a targeted introduction of relatively scarce bioplastics - which currently only account for up to 0.2 per cent of EU plastics - where they would have most effect.

For the full story, please visit Food Production Daily

CLICK HERE for copies of the briefing note Plastic waste: redesign and biodegradability

The European Commission has published guidance to provide legal certainty and a level playing field in the application of the energy efficiency thresholds for municipal waste incinerators in Annex II of Directive 2008/98/EC on waste (Waste Framework Directive – WFD).

The new WFD has introduced a five-step waste hierarchy as a priority order with waste prevention at the top followed by preparing for re-use, recycling, other recovery including energy recovery and waste disposal as the last resort. The Directive allows municipal waste incinerators to be classified as recovery operations provided they contribute to the generation of energy with high efficiency to promote the use of waste to produce energy in energy efficient municipal waste incinerators and encourage innovation in waste incineration.

The non-exhaustive list of recovery operations presented in Annex II of the WFD defines R1 as a recovery operation which is understood as "Use principally as a fuel or other means to generate energy". It is clarified in footnote (8) that this includes incineration facilities dedicated to the processing of municipal solid waste (MSW) only where their energy efficiency is equal to or above:

• 0.60 for installations in operation and permitted in accordance with applicable Community legislation before 1 January 2009
• 0.65 for installations permitted after 31 December 2008 when calculated using a formula connecting annual energy production (as heat or power), input energy, net calorific value of the waste treated and energy imported into the facility.

The "R1-formula" is not strictly speaking an expression of efficiency in physics, but a performance indicator for the level of recovery of energy from waste in a plant dedicated to the incineration of municipal solid waste (MSWI). The practical impact of this provision will have to be monitored in future and the R1 formula may be revised in 2014 in accordance with the provisions of article 37(4) of the WFD, and if necessary to keep it up to date with technological progress.

The European Environment Agency has published a report on hazardous substances in fresh and marine waters.

Hazardous substances are emitted to fresh and marine waters through a range of pathways and from a variety of sources, including industry, agriculture, transport, mining and waste disposal, as well as from our own homes. Hazardous substances found in fresh and marine waters

and associated sediment and biota include a wide range of industrial and household chemicals, metals, pesticides and pharmaceuticals. Some substances, for example tributyltin (TBT), persist in aquatic environments long after they have been phased out.

Hazardous substances can have detrimental effects on aquatic biota. Substances with endocrine-disrupting properties, for example, can impair reproduction in fish and shellfish, while the effects of organochlorines on marine life are well documented. Such impacts diminish the services provided by aquatic ecosystems, including the provision of food.

Humans can be exposed to hazardous substances in water, through ingesting contaminated drinking water and consuming contaminated freshwater fish and seafood. Some metals have been found in seafood above regulatory levels, whilst levels of banned substances such as DDT can also be high.

Well-established legislation within Europe has led to positive outcomes including a reduction in emissions of metals to air and water. Legislation implemented more recently, including the Water Framework Directive and REACH (Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) will play a key role in addressing hazardous substances in water.

For some pollutants, awareness of potential effects has only emerged recently and scientific understanding may still be incomplete. These 'emerging pollutants' include substances that have existed for some time, such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products, but also relatively new ones such as nanomaterials.

London-based waste projects seeking funding are invited to apply for the second round of funding from the London Waste & Recycling Board's £16M waste infrastructure fund.

The board (LWARB) is inviting expressions of interest from those projects that meet its funding criteria. LWARB has a particular interest in schemes located outside of east London as well as those that help to bridge the capacity gap in the capital.

Innovative waste solutions, such as hydrogen fuel cells, gas to grid, and waste-derived transport fuels, will also be considered. LWARB says it will be flexible in its approach to distributing funding including loans or equity investment, depending on project requirements.

As well as providing funding, the programme will build partnerships with various parties such as technology providers, off-takers and fuel suppliers. Proposals will go through an initial assessment before being evaluated.

Submissions of expressions of interest close 30 September 2011

Lufthansa has launched a six-month trial of Finnish refining company, Neste Oil's NExBTL renewable aviation fuel, refined from waste fats trial on regular scheduled flights.

Fuel quality is a critical issue in aviation. Aviation fuels need to have high energy content and be capable of operating at very low temperatures.

The use of Neste Oil's NExBTL aviation fuel became possible on 1 July as ASTM International, formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials, approved the use of renewable aviation fuel produced through hydrotreating vegetable oils and animal fats.

Neste Oil refines the fuel from vegetable oils and waste fats that it says are fully traceable to their source and comply with the EU's sustainability criteria. Camelina oil, jatropha oil, and waste animal fat are used to produce Lufthansa's batch of renewable aviation fuel.

Since biokerosene has similar properties to those of conventional kerosene it can be used for all aircraft types without any need for modifications to the aircraft or its engines.

A Lufthansa Airbus A321 will fly the Hamburg-Frankfurt-Hamburg route four times daily. One of its engines will run on a 50/50 mix of regular fuel and biosynthetic kerosene. During the test run period, Lufthansa claims that the use of biofuel will reduce CO2 emissions by up to 1500 tonnes.

A new pilot project that will see the carbon footprint label introduced on products in France begins in July 2011.

Carbon reduction company Sustain is warning that UK suppliers to organisations taking part in the project need to prepare now as they too could be asked to declare their carbon emissions.

All products in every sector will be affected including items such as cosmetics, clothes, food, electronic equipment, furniture and finance services.

There are 168 global companies taking part in the pilot, which runs for 12 months. It will then be reviewed by the French Government and, if successful, all products could bear the carbon footprint as a compulsory measure from as early as 2012.

Participating companies include Heineken, H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB, Levi Strauss, L'Oréal, Orange, Procter & Gamble and Unilever – some of which have UK suppliers.

Jean-Yves Cherruault, environmental accounting manager at Sustain, said: "This French pilot shows that some of the world's biggest multi-national organisations are taking carbon labelling seriously and the effect of this will reach beyond France.

"Participating companies will need to calculate carbon dioxide emissions not just from their own direct operations, but also from across their supply chains."

Poland may still be a beginner when it comes to delivering eco-innovations that benefit economy and environment, but interest and support is on the up according to a recent report.

The European Commission's Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP) reports that despite opportunities to save costs and cut pollution, interest in eco-innovation remains unsatisfactory in Poland, according to a profile of the country by the European Eco-Innovation Observatory (EIO). Its eco-innovation index is two times lower than the EU average. Only Romania, Slovakia and Lithuania do worse.

But things are changing. Despite corporate involvement in the environment being the lowest in Europe, some - including small and medium-sized enterprises - are waking up to the opportunity for eco-innovation to cut costs. From 2000 to 2007, the index reflecting the growth of gross domestic product generated from one kg of materials increased by over 30 per cent.

The Community Innovation Survey (CIS) 2006 to 2008 found that over a quarter of industrial companies and 16 per cent of service companies in Poland had introduced eco-innovations. They were largely production- rather than use-based and most often cut pollution to soil, water and air rather than CO2 emissions.

Polish Government support has come in forms such as the GreenEvo project, which helps Polish green technology companies promote products on international markets. Within this framework, the environment ministry has identified 28 top Polish

The UK Government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has issued updated guidance on applying the waste hierarchy for businesses in line with the revised EU Waste Framework Directive, which was transposed into UK law earlier this year.

EDIE reports that the 14-page guide sets out what the waste hierarchy is, how it works for a range of common materials and products, what businesses and public bodies need to do, together with key questions and ideas for dealing with waste in line with the hierarchy.

The hierarchy ranks various waste management options according to their environmental impact, giving priority to waste prevention with disposal (landfill and incineration without energy recovery) as a last option.

However, it also outlines a few exceptions where the hierarchy ranking shouldn't apply. These include using anaerobic digestion (AD) over in-vessel composting for food waste, dry AD followed by composting for mixed green and food waste, and energy recovery over recycling for lower grades of wood waste.

For the full story, please visit EDIE

WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) is launching the new Waste Prevention Loan Fund (WPLF) as announced in the recent Government Review of Waste Policy in England 2011. The Waste Prevention Loan Fund aims to reduce waste at source by supporting organisations to introduce business models and processes that make a more efficient use of material resources. Examples include product reuse, repair and upgrading services (e.g. through leasing), and materials recovery and reuse by the manufacturer.

The WPLF has £1 million to support businesses, social enterprises and local authorities over the next four years. The maximum investment will be £100,000 and the minimum will be £20,000. The £1m funding will be distributed in phases. In the first phase, a percentage of the funding will be made available as loans to assist with cash-flow for a business (retailer or product supplier) which is switching from generating immediate income through product sales to generating income from service delivery.

Applicants will need to demonstrate new approaches, which offer substantial resource savings and can be scaled-up and replicated to have significant benefit at the national level. The loan fund is designed to help introduce solutions where commercial funding is otherwise not available.

For further details about the WPLF, eligibility and the application process, CLICK HERE

Mr Phil Hogan T.D., Ireland's Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, has published a discussion document to help inform public consultation on the Government's commitment to reorganise household waste collection.

The Programme for Government states that the Government will introduce competitive tendering for local household waste collection services. It is envisaged that service providers will bid to provide waste collection services in a given area, for a given period of time and to a guaranteed level of service.

Irish waste policy development is driven by the objectives of achieving improved economic and environmental outcomes. These objectives require that society considers alternative methods of delivering services, especially a service such as waste management which has important consequences for our collective wellbeing.

In 2009, householders produced in excess of 1.6 million tonnes of waste. It is estimated that 128,000 tonnes of household waste were not collected. Of the household waste that was collected, approximately 70 per cent was sent to landfill, the lowest tier of the waste hierarchy. In the context of Ireland's obligations under the Landfill and Waste Framework Directives, such a situation is unsustainable. The amount of household waste produced must be reduced.

The cost of household waste collection services is also of concern. A number of informed commentators have remarked on perceptions of high prices for household waste collection services, which may be accounted for, in part at least, by the current structure of household waste collection markets. If costs, and therefore prices are unnecessarily high, then reducing those costs must be sought, if necessary by restructuring markets.

Umicore and Rhodia have jointly developed a unique process for the recycling of rare earth elements (REE) from Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries. This recycling process combines the capabilities of Umicore's proprietary Ultra High Temperature (UHT) battery recycling process with Rhodia's rare earth refining competences.

The process can service the whole range of NiMH batteries from portable applications to the batteries for hybrid electric vehicles. It is expected that first recovery of rare earth materials could take place by the end of this year. The process will enable the recovery of rare earths from NiMH batteries that will be treated at Umicore's new battery recycling plant in Hoboken. After the separation of the nickel and iron from the rare earths, Umicore will process the rare earths into a high grade concentrate that will be refined and formulated into rare earth materials at Rhodia's plant in La Rochelle (France).

For the full story, please visit Umicore and Rhodia

By 2012 the landfills in Hanoi won't be able to accept more waste, and with the low ratio of land per capita, Vietnam will have to consider burning waste instead, according to a report in on VietNamNet Bridge.

The Vietnamese government has allowed 18 industrial zones and high tech zones to be developed in Hanoi, as well as 13 small and medium industrial parks with thousands of industrial workshops.

However, only 500 enterprises have registered the owners of the waste sources and the volume of hazardous waste. According to the report, experts say that the waste volumes officially reported does not truly reflect the situation.

It is estimated that the volume of solid industrial waste in Da Nang is about 20 – 30 tonnes per day, while in Hanoi the figure is 100 tonnes and 900 - 1200 tonnes in Ho Chi Minh City. However, according Dr Nguyen Trung Viet from the HCM City Department for Natural Resources and the Environment the actual figures would be much higher.

In Ho Chi Minh City, there are about 12,000 industrial workshops, but only 2500 have registered the owners of the waste sources. In Da Nang, it is very difficult to define the volume and composition of industrial waste. Since solid industrial waste can be recycled, they are collected and carried to 800 recycling workshops in the city.

For the full story, please visit Waste Management World