CIFAL Jeju strengthens capacity on Holistic Waste Management
21 November 2014, Jeju, South Korea – UNITAR’s affiliated training centre CIFAL Jeju, in partnership with UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre, Asian Institute of Technology RRC.AP, Global Environment Centre, and City of Osaka,Japan,organized a three-day Introductory Training Session on Holistic Waste Management that took place in October in Bangkok, Thailand. For this event, CIFAL Jeju convened twenty-seven central, state and local government officials and NGO workers from thirteen different countries in Asia-Pacific and Central Asia.
Countries represented in the workshop included Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and Vietnam. The workshop served as a platform to build capacities in holistic waste management through eco-town concepts and to share in-depth knowledge and good practices among participants. The event also provided a space for city-to-city cooperation in formulating and implementing waste management strategies.
The workshop was led by 8 experts on holistic waste management and eco-town models: Ms. Misuzu Asari from Kyoto University, Japan; Mr. Hermann Koller from the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), Austria; Dr. Mushtaq Ahmed Memon from UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC), Japan; Mr. Makoto Mihara from Osaka City Environment Bureau, Japan; Dr. Dongjie Niu from Tongji University, China; Dr. Sunnel Pandey from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), India; Dr. Monthip Sriratana Tabucanon from National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), Thailand; and Professor Chettiyappan Visvanathan from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand.
The different lectures focused on key topics including waste overview, characterization and material flow management; resource efficiency and circular economy; waste treatment and disposal technology; and waste management policy, governance and financing.
The workshop was highly dynamic, including group discussions on the implementation of waste management strategies, collaborative exercises to formulate holistic waste management to transform cities and towns into eco-towns, and city-to-city exchanges. In addition, representatives from five universities and institutions gathered together to discuss about the development of a free of charge curriculum for Holistic Waste Management in an Urban Context in collaboration with UNEP.
Photo 1: A seaker and participants of the workshop
Photo 2: Participants discussing in a small group
Photo 3: Participants of the workshop