EcoForum encourages interdisciplinary thought

Environment industry professionals will be encouraged to think outside the square of their own disciplines at the EcoForum Conference & Exhibition in Sydney on Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 February 2010.

EcoForum Managing Director Paul Howlett said: “EcoForum is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary event designed to provide participants with the knowledge and networks they need to solve environmental problems and build business networks across the areas of climate change, water, waste and remediation.

“We are therefore encouraging participants to attend sessions that they may not normally go to in an effort to promote cross-fertilisation between the disciplines and give people a chance to update their knowledge of different aspects of environmental management.

“A paper in the waste conference stream by Mohan Selvaraj from Remondis, ‘AWT - Is there a silver bullet?’, is a case in point. In this paper the presenter will discuss the technical and commercial successes and failures associated with processing municipal solid waste using alternative waste technology (AWT).

“The picture he paints is one that those involved in waste management know only too well - rising landfill levies, increased costs of disposal, high levels of community acceptance for recycling and concerns for the environment. When we add the need to further recover valuable wasted resources and the global recognition of climate change, that’s where alternative waste technology may come in.

“But is this the best and most sustainable way to manage the earth’s resources? This is the type of challenging question that we want people from all the environment management sectors - climate change, water, remediation and waste management - to think about and debate over the two days.”

Further details are available at www.ecoforum.net.au.