Review of WASTEvision 2020 on the topic "Urban Mining - Resources from Waste
On September 18, WASTEvision 2020 counted a round anniversary, however, the symposium once again revolved around the core of the matter, the processing and disposal of "waste in the environment".
On September 18, 2020, Umtec Technologie AG in cooperation with the Institute for Environmental and Process Engineering UMTEC of the OST - Ostschweizer Fachhochschule held the WASTEvision 2020 for the tenth time. After a short introduction, Reto Vincenz, Managing Director of Umtec Technologie AG, gave the floor to the first speaker, Rainer Bunge, from the Raw Materials and Process Engineering Department of the Institute UMTEC. He used plastic mass flows in Switzerland to explain where avoidable and where unavoidable leakages of plastic into the environment exist. It became clear that a distinction must be made between "nuisance / unsightly" and "toxicologically relevant" in the case of these leakages.
Psychological causes of littering
Ralph Hansmann, an environmental psychologist at ETH Zurich, then shed light on the problem of littering and showed how complex the psychological causes behind it are. As measures against littering, humorous and environmentally oriented campaigns produce a significantly better effect than those with authoritarian content.
After the coffee break, Dominik Egli, Head of Stadtreinigung Basel, gave a presentation on the day-to-day littering situation at hotspots in the city of Basel. Although the amount of littered waste can be very large, the problem is nevertheless manageable for Stadtreinigung, and the cleanliness index for the city of Basel is good. However, there is a conflict of goals when it comes to illegal household waste, some of which is disposed of in public. Nora Steimer, managing director of the IG Saubere Umwelt (Clean Environment Union), outlined what effective measures against littering could look like.
It is particularly effective to take measures again and again, using an appropriate mix of different measures. Richard Nyffeler from Entsorgung St. Gallen then reported on the life of a waste controller. The spectrum of his experiences ranges from consciously or unconsciously incorrectly disposed of household waste to illegal dumping in nature. As very special experiences, he was able to report on a boat that had been disposed of in a forest ravine and on a refrigerator that had been hung on a highway bridge...
The lunch break was used not only for refreshments, but also for lively discussions among the participants and the speakers, of course taking into account the COVID 19 protection concept. Subsequently, Thomas Bucheli, head of Agroscope's Environmental Analysis Research Group, reported on plastic flows in Swiss agriculture. These are often intended applications with an added benefit, in contrast to littered plastic, which is absolutely undesirable.
The presentations were concluded by Andreas Utiger, Managing Director of Biomasse Suisse. He explained how plastics get into our biowaste and what measures can be taken to increase the quality of green waste. The interesting technical contributions of the speakers laid the foundation for an engaged discussion to round off the conference. Various questions of the participants were discussed and answered by the experts.
WASTEvision 2020 was a complete success. Therefore, the organizers are already looking forward to WASTEvision 2021 on September 24 next year
