Churchill fellowship to study waste overseas

A senior technical officer from Gosford City Council in NSW has been awarded a prestigious Churchill Fellowship to study alternative and traditional solid waste management technologies and practices overseas.

During his seven-week study tour, Churchill Fellow James Lawson will visit several waste facilities in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom where he will talk to private industry and various government authorities and community groups to get an insight into how they deal with waste. He will also attend Sardinia 2005 in Italy, an international waste conference and landfill symposium expected to draw 1000 delegates from 57 countries.

When he returns from the study tour, Mr Lawson anticipates that he will be feeding the knowledge he gains into Gosford Council's waste management systems and disseminating it more widely to the waste management community through conference presentations and the like.

Churchill Fellowships are awarded by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to enable Australians from all walks of life to undertake a period of overseas study that cannot be readily undertaken in Australia. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Trust and increases the total number of Churchill Fellowships awarded to 2946.

James Lawson was one of 87 Australians awarded a fellowship in 2005. "It is interesting to note that only one other fellowship in the 40-year history has been awarded to study waste management and only two this year were awarded to local government." he said.