Study tour in the frame of the ISTEAC summit hosted by the Institute for Waste Management of TUD

Learning from best practice examples

The different pilot schemes and discussions on composting technologies which the project group had gone through during its research activities, and the examples of small-scale applications visited in Viet Nam and the Philippines led to the wish of the project partners from Asia and Greece to get to know about the operations of composting installations that work successfully on a large scale. It was realised by way of a visit at the facilites of the Humuswirtschaft Kaditz, one of the operators serving the City of Dresden with the treatment of her biodegradable waste collected from households in the so-called "Bio-Tonne" or as green and garden waste from the city premises.

Of further interest was the practical management of packaging material recovered under the internationally renowned scheme of the "green dot". Many European states and an increasing number of countries worldwide have adopted the system's principles to enforce an extended producer responsibility and environmentally benign management of their packaging waste. In the City of Dresden, the collected packaging waste is forwarded to the Wertstoffaufbereitung Dresden (WAD) where it is sorted into various material fractions before the recycling in different branches of the industry. Following the introduction to the packaging collection system of the city, the project participants dropped in for a visit of the WAD's sorting line on the first day of the study tour.

No waste management goes without a certain amount of final deposition, be it only to make sure that highly dangerous substances are stored under proper control and conditions where harmful effects to the environment can be excluded. The ultimate method used for this in Germany are underground deposits in old salt mines. Especially filter ashes obtained from the intensive flue gas cleansing in waste incinerators are handled this way. The project participants learnt about this ultimate option in the management of wastes during a visit at the Grube Teutschenthal.

Other sites representing best practice examples for Germany's integrated waste management strategy which have been visited during the study tour included a biowaste fermentation facility and the waste stabilization plant in Dresden.

Additional sites visited: Lauta Waste Incinerator and Gröbern Landfill