RECO Baltic 21 Tech - Towards Sustainable Waste Management in the Baltic Sea Region

17 October 2013, Minsk, Belarus

The conference "Cornerstones for sustainable waste management in the Baltic Sea region" is the final conference of the Interreg IVB project RECO Baltic 21 Tech "RB21T".

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RB21T aims to improve waste management in the BSR by identification and exchange of good practices, to consider waste as an asset for innovations, business opportunities and employment. During the conference the main outputs of the project will be presented. We are glad to present highly qualified and interesting speakers representing academic, public and private stakeholders. We look forward to informative speeches, thoughtful discussions and a fruitful exchange between participants.

17 - 21 September 2013, Hamburg, Germany

The Summer Course is already fully booked and we cannot take any new registrations. Thanks for your interest!

Up to three billion tons of waste is produced in the European Union every year (EC, 2010).

The amount of waste created globally is expected to increase up to 27 billion ton p.a. in 2050 (Tanaka, 2007) due to changing consumption patterns, i.e. higher living standards and lifestyle changes leading to more consumption. Waste management is, therefore, a topic of major concern in Europe and elsewhere. It is understood as the procedure of monitoring and handling waste from collection, transport, treatment (processing), recovery and recycling to final disposal of the remaining residual waste. However, good waste management begins with preventing waste generation and minimising quantities of waste. A typical waste management hierarchy is prevention, minimisation, reuse and recycling, recovery and disposal.

15 - 18 May 2013, Minsk, Belarus

Sustainable Development (SD) is a modality of development that meets the needs of the present generations, without compromising the ability of future ones to meet their own needs. This definition, presented in 1987 at the publication "Our Common Future" (Brundtland Report) of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), is still widely applicable today.

At the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992, the document "Agenda 21" was adopted by representatives of 179 countries. In this document, the concept of sustainable development acquired a greater internatonal meaning and relevance. More recently, a the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) held in held Rio de Janeiro in June 2012, the document "The Future We Want" was adopted. This document defines new horizons for sustainable development. Rio+20 Secretary-General, Mr. Sha Zukang, pointed out that "The Rio+20 Conference was a landmark event of far-reaching historic significance. Addressing a large number of inter-linked challenges through inclusive consultations and negotiations, Rio+20 achieved a balanced and action-oriented outcome, reflecting the positions and commitments of all nations".

20 - 22 June 2013, Opole, Poland

Sustainability issues have become so common in many fields of socio-, political- and economic life, that it is often forgotten that it requires new approaches, and a change in rules guiding human activity , ways of thinking and governance structures. There exists the need to understand the interactions in institutional change between socio-economic systems, technology , product innovation and a transition path towards more sustainable production structures.

24 January 2013 in Riga

The task of procurement is part of WP 4 and is supposed to assist selected Pilot Projects in WP 3 in the entire procurement process from designing a tender, evaluate proposals, selection of providers and drafting a contract in order to ensure that the investment is carried out correctly. The purpose of the workshop is one step to enhance the capacity for problem owners in the BSR to make and produce high quality and efficient procurement for faced investments.

05 - 06 February 2013, Hamburg, Germany

From 5th to 6th February 2013 Stadtreinigung Hamburg (City Cleaning Hamburg) and Hamburg University of Technology hosted the second Hamburg T.R.E.N.D. event with support of RECO Baltic 21 Tech. Almost 250 visitors came to the Hamburg Chamber of Craft Trades to discuss how the components of electrical waste can be used as a resource, for example rare earth metals, steel, copper and plastics. More than 20 exhibitors presented their businesses, services and projects, including RECO Baltic 21 Tech.

“This time we chose the topic ‘electrical waste as a resource’ because it is of such interest for ecology, politics, the waste management industry and research at the moment,” according to Dr Rüdiger Siechau, director of Stadtreinigung Hamburg. “Topics like resource depletion, the increase in prices of primary raw materials and the damage caused to the environment by their extraction are all current topics of discussion. The importance of recycling the components of electronic waste and using them as secondary raw materials thus becomes apparent. Candidates include rare earth metals, steel, copper and plastics.”

27 March 2013, Hamburg, Germany

Eine Veranstaltung des Forschungs- und Transferzentrums »Applications of Life Sciences«

Obwohl fast 900 Millionen Menschen weltweit an Mangelernährung und Hunger leiden, vor allem in Afrika und Asien, wird andernorts oft mit Lebensmitteln leichtsinnig umgegangen. Weltweit wird rund ein Drittel aller Lebensmittel nicht verzehrt, in Deutschland z.B. wirft jeder Bundesbürger durchschnittlich pro Jahr 81 kg Lebensmittel weg. Davon sind rund 35 % ungenießbare Essensreste wie Schalen oder Teebeutel. Der größere Teil – z.B. Obst, Gemüse, Käse oder Brot – landen in den Tonnen, obwohl sie oft noch verzehrt werden können. Jährlich enden etwa elf Millionen Tonnen Lebensmittel auf deutschen Müllhalden.

28 September 2012, Stockholm, Sweden

The aim of this one-day workshop is to present possible financing opportunities for the pilot projects as well as give the pilots an opportunity to present themselves.

03 October 2012, Barcelona, Spain

Reco Baltic 21 Tech (RB21T) is the biggest and most comprehensive waste management project  in  the  Baltic  Sea  Region  (BSR)  and  is  co-financed  by  the  BSR  Interreg  IVB. Currently RB21T, acknowledged as a EU strategic project, is divided into 5 work packages (WP)  of which WP5 aims at developing a joint strategy and collaboration in the western MEDA region. A central output for RB21T is to make its results transferable and durable, to spread best waste management initiatives, and ultimately to initiate a RECO-MEDA project applying RB21T results, outputs and methods.

“Municipal Waste Management in the Baltic Sea Region: lessons learnt and next steps“ and

Baltic Waste Management Council Meeting

10 - 11 October 2012, Vilnius, Lithuania (attention: the venue has changed)

The conference "Municipal Waste Management in the Baltic Sea Region: lessons learnt and next steps" is organized as part of the project "RECO Baltic 21 Tech". The project aims to improve waste management in the Baltic Sea region by identification and exchange of good practices, to consider waste as an asset for innovations, business opportunities and employment.

As the project contributes towards sustainable waste management by providing a platform that enables and strengthens the co-operation in the Baltic Sea region, we invite You to the conference.