Write up about the Conference
The International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management is an annual conference organized by the Department of Civil Engineering of Widener University. The conference started in 1981 and has been held annually since 2002, less often prior to 2002. Solid waste is a complex field, drawing on many different areas of expertise (i.e., waste generation, collection, disposal, waste recovery etc.). And because waste is an issue of concern everywhere, the goal of this conference is to bring together experts from all of those areas – researchers, educators, government officials, consultants, managers, community leaders, students and others – to present, discuss topics and share their knowledge related to all aspects of solid waste technology and management while learning from those with different experiences.
This year, the 29th International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management was held lastMarch 30-April 2, 2014, in Radisson Blu Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A. It was attended by almost 300 participants from different countries around the world. The conference includes a half day professional education short course on Natural Gas Recovery and Processing: Hydraulic Fracturing, Landfill Gas, and Anaerobic Digesters given by Dr. Gennaro J. Maffia, MBA. Four professional development hours were awarded to the participants. The conference was composed of eight different sessions for oral presentations and two poster sessions with topics ranging from recycling, waste generation, construction and demolition waste, landfills among others. On the last day, there were two choices for the educational/technical field trip: 1) Environmental Landfill and Composting 2) Recycling, Energy Recovery and Transfer. For the option 1, participants went to Cherry Island Landfill in Delaware managed by the Delaware Solid Waste Authority and the Wilmington Organic Recycling Center (WORC), the most state-of-the-art, large-scale commercial food and yard waste composting facility in North America. The second option involved trips to the Covanta Delaware Valley Energy-from-Waste Facility, Covanta Energy 58th St Transfer Station and E-vanta WEEE Recycling and Revolution Recovery, a recycling service company.
Feedback on paper presented
My paper is about the solid waste generation of commercial establishments in UP (Shopping center, CASAA and kiosks). Studies on wastes generated by commercial establishments are very limited, not just in UP but mainly in the whole country. Our methodology includes estimating waste generation with respect to the floor area of the establishments (kg/m2-day). One of the comments from Geoffrey D. Glenn, from Department of Solid Waste Management of City of Spokane, on our paper was if we have also related the waste generation to the number of waste producers (customers, staff etc.) of the establishments. Due to limited time and resources (personnel and money), we found it difficult to express our results in kg/person-day. Also, we have decided to use kg/m2-day to compare our results with other establishments just given with the floor area. We can also predict the waste generation of an establishment just knowing the type of the establishment and its floor area. But given with proper resources, we can also count the number of waste producers in the future.
Future directions of research presented
This research is part of a project in UP Diliman entitled Solid and Hazardous Waste Management of UP Diliman headed by Dr. Maria Antonia Tanchuling funded by SOS (Source of Solutions) grant of OVCRD. We are planning to propose a related research on waste diversion and material flow analysis of different sectors in the campus.
Potential foreign collaborators
Dr. Ronald Mersky – Widener University ([email protected])
Geoffrey D. Glenn – Department of Solid Waste Management, City of Spokane ([email protected])
Other important contacts and insights
Jason M. Munyan, P.E., BCEE – Senior Facility Manager, Cherry Island Landfill, Delaware Solid Waste Authority
Short write-up of one’s participation (to be used to feature/publicize the grantee’s participation in the conference)
As a young faculty member of the university, I am very glad to have this opportunity to present our valuable research to a greater audience and experts around the world in the 29th International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management in Philadelphia, USA. I was able to gather valuable comments and insights from the comments on my presentation, from watching other presentations and the technical tour. Since solid waste is a very complex subject and solid waste management is very multidisciplinary and involves many elements. This conference served as a good venue to see the current and emerging trends in various aspects of solid waste management in other countries. I can now compare the current status of solid waste management of our country to others. Likewise, the conference was a good opportunity to interact and build international network with researchers from America, Asia and other regions. I am very thankful to ERDT Faculty Research Dissemination Grant (FRDG) of the College of Engineering and the OVPAA RDG for supporting my participation to this conference.
