Waste Management in England takes a two-tier approach. Waste Collection Authorities (WCAs) are responsible for providing day-to-day collections of household wastes. At agreed locations, called Transfer Stations, Waste Disposal Authorities (WDAs) take control of the wastes and arrange for disposal. Some urban areas of England are governed by Unitary Authorities, which are responsible for both the collection and disposal of the waste generated within their boundaries. This two-tier system has resulted in there being two standard options provided by authorities for disposing of household bulky waste, which includes furniture, electrical appliances and other large and heavy items not accepted on regular refuse or recycling collections (e.g. carpets, bicycles, household construction wastes). (Session A10: Waste recycling (II))

Past and current waste management in Switzerland has been strongly affected by the guidelines on Swiss waste management published in 1986 (FOEN, 1986). These guidelines were further specified in the waste concept for Switzerland in 1992 (FOEN, 1992). Waste management was therein already understood as being embedded in the nationwide economy and the popular waste hierarchy was propagated as guidance for political interventions. (Session A15: LCA in waste management)

Waste generation is inevitable accompanied with economic activities. It is necessary for dealing with the waste problem to clarify the relationship between economic activities and waste generation. Input-output analysis is a conventional method to describe the flow of goods and services among different sectors of the economy. Recent years, new usefulness was found in input-output analysis as an effective method for LCA, especially for the waste treatment problem. There are pioneering research works by Professor Leontief which develop the conventional input-output analysis to deal with the flow of waste (Leontief, 1970, 1972, & Duchin, 1990). Nakamura and Kondo et al. also adopted this method to extend the conventional input-output model to the waste input-output model, which was called WIO (Kondo et al., 2002). (Session A15: LCA in waste management)

The Construction & Demolition Waste Treatment Centre in Moralzarzal (Madrid) was inaugurated on March 19, 2007. This is one of the plants that the Department of Environment and Territorial Planning of the Region of Madrid has developed as part of its Construction & Demolition Waste Management Plan.

The first construction and demolition waste treatment plant in the central Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha, was inaugurated in November, 2007. The facility is located on the La Vega industrial estate in Chiloeches, Guadalajara.

The new construction and demolition waste sorting and treatment plant in Vitoria-Gasteiz, (capital of the Spanish Basque Country) was inaugurated on March 30, 2007. The plant was built to respond to the need for specific treatment and handling facilities for this type of waste in that city.

Information, actions and experiences regarding operation, closure and aftercare of the closed landfills Mansie I and Hahn-Lehmden are demonstrated. Mansie I: Disposal of municipal solid waste from 1969 until 1997 resulting in a volume 1,2 Mio m³ on a natural and dense subgrade. Sanitation and recultivation from 1993 until 1998, further operation as reactor landfill during the closure phase, final acceptance in 2005.

The feasibility of using chelate agents to enhance the electrokinetic remediation of heavy metal contaminated soils has been investigated in this study.

During the construction of the 57 kilometers long new transalpine rail route - the Gotthard Base Tunnel - in Switzerland, large quantities of mud-like materials resulted.

The capillary barrier system is an alternative surface sealing, which has obtained a high acceptance during the previous decade.

Heavy metal contamination of soils is still an unsolved problem although metals are associated with human life and have been widely used for thousands of years.

This paper introduces the current status in Japan of energy conversion systems from waste biomass which is mainly composed of not only wet biowastes such as food waste/organic residues from households, restaurants and food factories, sewage and wastewater treatment sludge, and livestock excreta, but also waste paper, waste wood, and waste biological oil/fat/grease.

Agricultural and animal wastes are able to play an important role towards the satisfaction of heat and energy and high added value materials supply, with respect to the environmental protection targets.

SUMMARY: The approach described in this paper assists in visualising the existent solid waste management (SWM) system and estimate cost implications achieved by implementing composting units, seen from the municipality’s viewpoint. The new approach combines the methods of material flow analysis and cost accounting.

SUMMARY: In Japan biomass charcoal has been used for a long time as soil improver in a firm. Bamboo charcoal was added to rice bran as nutrient with composting aerobic complex microorganisms.

SUMMARY: The instability of soil structure is a common problem for European silty soils leading to topsoil crustability and erodibility. In such soils, aggregate stability is mainly driven by their content in organic matter. Intensive cultivation led to the decrease in their organic matter content, thus increased soil structure alteration. Adding soil organic improvers, such as composts made from urban wastes, is a possible way to improve such degraded situations.