WasteSafe 2009  - the International Conference on Solid Waste Management: Technical, Environmental and Socio-economical Contexts, was held in Khulna, 9-10 November, 2009. The conference was organised by the Department of Civil Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET), Khulna, Bangladesh, in close cooperation with the Bauhaus University of Weimar, Germany, the Khulna City Corporation, the Asian Institute of Techology, Thailand, the Bauhaus International Research & Education Centre, Germany and the Lublin University of Technology, Poland. International and professional supports were provided by the IWWG (International Waste Working Group) and ORBIT Association. The event was also organised under the aegis of the Department of Environment (DoE), Ministry of Environment and Forests of Bangladesh Government. The European Commission co-financed this International Conference through the WasteSafe II project at KUET under the EU-Asia Pro Eco II Programme.

More than 160 academicians, researchers, professionals, students and other personalities from 13 different countries submitted their scientific contributions and registered to attend in the conference. The Conference focused on Solid Waste Management, considering in particolar its technical, environmental and socio-economical contexts. The presentations were divided into the following six different categories:

·         General Approach of Solid Waste Management

·         Hazardous Waste Management

·         Indusrial Waste and Drain Sludge Management

·         Landfill

·         Composting & Treatment

·         Recycling & others.

The Conference started with Registration and Ice-breaking party in the evening of 8th November 2009 at the Civil Engineering Building of the KUET, the venue of the conference. A total of 87 oral presentations were presented between 12 technical parallel session, 4 KeyNote sessions and an Inaugural Session. Before starting the technical sessions, an Inaugural Ceremony was held at the Auditorium of KUET.

The Inaugural Ceremony was led by the Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Prof. Muhammed Alamgir and addressed by the chairman of ORBIT Association and Lead European Partner of WasteSafe II Project, Prof. Werner Bidlingmaier, from the Bauhaus University of Weimar, Germany, the IWWG Managing Board member Prof. Raffaello Cossu, the representative of DoE and the First Secretary of the Delegation of European Commission, Jorge Nieto Rey.

Prof. M. Habibur Rahman, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and the Mayor of the Khulna City Corporation, Talukder Abdul Khaleque, gave their addresses as Special and Chief guests, respectively.  The Inaugural Ceremony was also highlighted with a Keynote paper “Do we need to recycle organic waste materials” by Prof. Bidlingmaier.
 

Prof. Alamgir, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of WasteSafe 2009, addresses in the Inaugural Ceremony

Prof. Alamgir handed over a token appreciation to Prof. Cossu as the Session Chairman

All the next sessions were held in Civil Engineering Building in two parallel sessions. 4 technical sassions were completed at first day and rest 8 technical sessions were completed at second day. In Bnagladesh, this is the first ever international conference exclusively on solid waste management. The beauty of this conference is the presentation of high quality research works from different developing countries with a big variety based on the field level experiences. In the inaugural presentation the huge potential of the recycling of organic waste materials are highlighted with encouraging facts and figures. In the Keynote sessions, the sustainable managment of landfill and the possibility of landfill gas reduction through methane oxidation process using aerated bio-filter were presented and hence discussed explicitly. The climate change and the actual role of solid waste, specially in the perspectioves of Least Developed Asian Countries (LDACs) were also presented in this conferene. The success histories of Anaerobic Digestion in European countries and the transfer of these new technologies in Asian perspectives were also discussed with great interest. However, the challenges to achieve the environmental sustainability of the existing system practiced in the LDACs within the prevailing socio-economic conditions and the technological capabilities.   

In the WasteSafe 2009, the expereinces and the reserach findings were unfolded by the young researchers in the perspectives of developing countries are overwhelming and most encourgaing outcome of such events. Definitely, the young researchers will be benefited very much due to critical discussions and required suggestions on their reserch findings. It is evident that these kind of  presentation on wide variety is only possiblble due to holding such conference in Bangladesh, one of LDACs. The research findings on the difficulties of the achievements of sustainable waste managment practices in the developing countries, lack of mass awareness, need of community participation, organizational reforms, law enforcement, potentiality of composting, recycling, strong need of hospital waste managment and the implementation of sustainable landfill technology, were the highlighted topics in this conference.  Some original reserach works on awareness build-up, increase of people awareness and changing the atitude, primary collection of wastes through door-to-door system, informal recycling factories, developement of appropriate composting techynology, management of huge amount of organic watses, construction of sustainable landfill with locally available building materials and construction technolgies, loacl method for leachate treatment, were presented in this conference.

The WasteSafe 2009 International Conference was ended with a simple closing ceremony, which was held on 10th November 2009, moderated by Prof. Alamgir. The participants gave their valuable comments and talked about future prospects of such International Conference in the Least Developed Asian Countries. The organizing committee gratefully acknowledged the continuous, cordially and effective supports from all the relevant organizations and the individuals that contribute essentially to the success of this conferece. In the closing ceremony special comments and observation on the overall management, break through and the  outcomes were given by Prof. Cossu and Prof. Bidlingmaier.
 

Prof. Cossu, Prof. Alamgir, Prof. Bidlingmaier and Prof. Hossian, with the Volunteers at the Closing Ceremony of the WasteSafe 2009 International Conference

On behalf of WasteSafe 2009, Prof. Alamgir handed over the appreciation, Crest and Conference Proceedings, to Prof. Bidlingmair and Prof. Cossu  for ORBIT and IWWG. The next WasteSafe conference has been scheduled for 14-15 February 2011 at the same venue of the KUET in Khulna, Bangladesh.

As a post conference activities three days Sundarbans tour was held, where the foreign participants enjoy the beauty of the world largest mangrove forest. Student exchage programme also held between the student of Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany and the students of civil engineering department, KUET, Bangladesh.

Group photo of some of the participants to the WasteSafe 2009 International Conference

A view of traditioal Bengali Cultural show presented during Conference Dinner on 9th Nov. 2009

A few Photograph of three days conference tour at Sundarbans