Background and Goals

Future waste management programs must be put into practice in conjunction with sound policies that restrict the use of fossil fuels and natural resources and contribute to the reduction of emissions into the environment.  This strategy should be based on a sound scientific basis, without ideology, politics or financial interests, and should be implemented on a world-wide basis and not limited to industrialized countries.  There is, in fact, a relatively large deficit of proper waste management programs in many developing countries where tailor-made concepts and appropriate technologies must be developed paying due consideration to cultural, economic, religious, climatic and other factors.  To achieve this goal, existing waste management options must be evaluated for implementation, new strategies must be formulated and new, innovative solutions have to be found.

Based on this need, the International Waste Working Group (IWWG) was established in 2002, not to contrast or to compete with existing professional organisations but to serve as a forum for meeting a world-wide demand for a platform for the scientific and professional community. The IWWG is a non-profit organisation, founded by the following group of waste professionals from the academic and private sectors:

·        Prof. Thomas Christensen  (Technical University of Denmark)

·        Prof. Raffaello Cossu (University of Padua, Italy)

·        Dr Luis F. Diaz (CalRecovery Inc., USA)

·        Prof. Peter Lechner (Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, Austria)

·        Prof. Anders Lagerkvist (Lulea University of Technology, Sweden)

·        Prof. Yasushi Matsufuji (Fukuoka University, Japan)

·        Dr Howard Robinson (Enviros, UK)

·        Prof. Dr. -Ing.Rainer Stegmann (Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg, Germany)

The aim of the IWWG is to provide an intellectual forum to encourage and support economic and ecological (integrated and sustainable) waste management world-wide and to promote scientific advancement in the field.  This aim will be accomplished by learning from the past, analysing the present for developing new ideas and visions for the future.

This will provide the possibility to fully exploit the tremendous amount of knowledge and experience that is accumulated so far, but that, because the knowledge and experience have been dispersed and not focused, are not influencing legislation, practical application, education, rational development of appropriate technologies, and others on a world-wide basis. 

In order to pursue this aim, the IWWG was conceived as a think tank, based on scientific principles but application oriented.  In addition, the IWWG has a light, non-bureaucratic organisation which allows us to focus on a variety of subjects, react promptly to relevant problems in the field of solid waste management and communicate efficiently within the professional community.