Waste Management and the Environment V

Book excerpt: The International Conference on Waste Management and the Environment is organised every two years by the Wessex Institute of Technology in collaboration with other institutions. This fifth conference follows the success of previous meetings held in C diz (2002), Rhodes (2004), Malta (2006) and Granada (2008). Waste Management is becoming one of the key problems of the modern world, an international issue that is intensified by the volume and complexity of domestic and industrial waste discarded by society. Unfortunately, many of the practices adopted in the past were aimed at short-term solutions without sufficient regard or knowledge for long-term implications on health, the environment or sustainability and this, in many cases, is leading to the need to take difficult and expensive remedial action. With our growing awareness of the detrimental environmental effects of current waste disposal, there is a significant onus of accountability for effective waste management. Better practice and safer solutions are required. Not only is there a need for more research on current disposal methods such as landfill, incineration, chemical and effluent treatment, but also on recycling, waste minimisation, clean technologies, waste monitoring, public and corporate awareness, and general education.