Experts Take Zero Waste Message to Switzerland, England

San Diego, CA - When Canberra, Australia launched its 'No Waste by 2010' program in 1995, many saw this as a pie-in-the sky approach to handling discarded resources and reducing waste at source. Since then, however, Zero Waste has been endorsed by almost half of all municipal authorities in New Zealand and by several jurisdictions in the Canada and the USA, including the state waste agency in California. Now more officials and activists are taking the Zero Waste concept seriously.

In February a team of American experts took the message to Europe and leading workshops in Switzerland and the UK First stop was the 6th World Congress on Integrated Resources Management (www.R02.org) in Geneva, Switzerland, where the group presented papers and hosted a workshop on Zero Waste Initiatives. The Congress is cosponsored by United Nations Environmental Program.

The speakers then traveled to Sussex, England to present a conference and workshop entitled Zero Waste Theory and Practice. The sessions were organized by Zero Waste UK, a grassroots activist organization seeking comprehensive alternatives to incineration.

Papers were presented by eight American professors and practitioners in the area of resource conservation and recovery: Dr. Paul Connett, chemist and professor, St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York; Dr. Dan Knapp, sociologist and president, Urban Ore, Inc., Berkeley, California; Dr. Jeff Morris, economist and principal, Sound Resource Management Group, Seattle, Washington; Dr. Bill Sheehan, ecologist and executive director, GrassRoots Recycling Network, Athens, Georgia; Richard Anthony, professional program manager, Richard Anthony Associates, San Diego, California; Joan Edwards, former recycling director for New York City and Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach California; and Bill Worrell, engineer and manager, San Luis Obispo County Integrated Waste Management Authority San Luis, Obispo, California. A paper was presented on behalf of Dr. Neil Seldman, president, Institute for Local Self Reliance, Washington DC.