KUWAIT: ProMedia is organizing the 5th Kuwait Waste Management conference and exhibition on Jan 22 and 23, at the Radisson Blu Hotel. Various international and local institutions are participating in this event. Various issues were discussed during the conference yesterday including waste management before and after the 2012 London Olympics, solid waste management in KSA, United States army camps' waste management, recycling program in Kuwait, government experience in waste management, sustainable waste management buildings in Egypt, Basel Convention and others.
Lectures scheduled for today (Wednesday) will focus on an overview of waste environment management, recycling stainless steel waste, information systems' requirement in solid waste management, waste reduction, waste water used in irrigation for establishing man-made forests, potential of mechanically activated mineral waste materials, microbial production of polyhydroxybutyrate, agro-industrial waste products, and environmental management systems development. Organizers worked for six months in cooperation with the Kuwait Municipality to prepare for this event. "Dr. Khalid Al-Mahdi, Head of the Scientific Committee and a chemistry teacher at the Kuwait University chose the 14 participating scientific researches out of more than 30 which were submitted.
On this occasion, I would like to thank all the participants and speakers at this conference for their great effort," Jamal Omran, Head of the Organizing Committee, said at the launching ceremony yesterday. Adnan Muhsin, the Head of the Environment Department at the Kuwait Municipality, noted that the scientific researches in waste management will help lead us in finding a way to reduce pollution on our planet. "Such conferences help in enhancing the knowledge about sustainable development and better waste management. The waste produced in Kuwait, whether by individuals or factories, is too huge for its geographical size. This enjoins even greater responsibility on our Municipality as far as waste disposal processes are concerned," he pointed out.
The need for waste management is increasing. "The Municipality had executed many projects related to waste management and we are now seeing the results through the new cleaning contracts. In addition, we started working on some new waste management projects which envisage sorting out the waste at the source itself to recycle it in three separate ways. Furthermore, we solved the problem related to tires and announced a bid for the private sector to invest in this," Muhsin added. He also mentioned some statistics about waste in Kuwait. "Each individual in Kuwait is producing about 1.5 kg of hard waste daily. We are a country of three million. This is one of the highest waste production rates internationally.
Also the industrial waste accounts for about 18,000 tons daily as a result of the building projects and urban development. This waste is treated immediately through local recycling factories," he explained. Kuwait Municipality is holding awareness programs by sending messages to spread the environmental awareness in the community. "There is positive response from the public towards these awareness programs and I appreciate the efforts of those working on this issue in different departments and the people who have been responding. Also the Municipality is preparing a huge awareness campaign on waste burning. Lectures will be held at schools to increase the students' awareness about environment protection. In addition, we are publishing awareness enhancing brochures about to sort out the waste correctly," concluded Muhsin.
© Kuwait Times 2013