Hot Topics: Towards Zero Waste Summit in China
After almost 15 months of preparation by DEC and the WA Department of Industry and Resources, a Towards Zero Waste Summit was recently held in the beautiful city of Hangzhou in the Zhejiang Province of China.
Western Australia has a 20-year formal sister state/sister province relationship with Zhejiang Province and in recent years liaison and cooperation has included a focus on waste management, waste avoidance and resource recovery.
Members of the Western Australian delegation, with senior Chinese municipal waste managers, at a Zhejiang waste processing facility
DEC worked with DOIR and Chinese government agencies in Zhejiang to organise the conference, which was held from April 15 to 19.
Both the WA and Zhejiang governments have policy commitments to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. The conference brought together 190 senior waste managers from Zhejiang and WA to exchange information and ideas on the latest policies, programs and procedures for minimising waste to landfill.
John Ottaway presents one of the keynote speeches.
The summit was judged to be highly successful with much interest and enthusiasm for learning about what was presented and discussed. Our Chinese counterparts are extremely keen to continue liaison with Western Australia and, especially, develop ongoing partnerships of mutual benefit.
Delegates included representatives from government, industry, consultant companies and universities. The focus is avoiding waste in the first place, but then recovering resources from the waste streams to use as feedstocks for other products.
Acting Director of Sustainability Division, Michael Kerr (front row, middle), with members of the WA delegation and some of the 170 Chinese delegates.
DEC was represented by Acting Director Sustainability Division Michael Kerr, Principal Consultant in the Office of the Deputy Director General Environment Dr John Ottaway, Waste Wise Schools Community Education Coordinator Elizabeth Blakeway and DEC consultant Jim Malcolm, all of whom presented papers at the summit.
Jim Malcolm (left), Michael Kerr (centre), John Ottaway (standing) and Rebecca Brown from the WA Local Government Association.
Adapted from the DECmatters article dated 15th May 2008
