Environment: ENEA at the International Symposium on Urban Mining and Waste Management in China

ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, has been invited in China at SUMEast 2019, the international Symposium on Urban Mining and Waste Management. The Symposium was held in Suzhou and organized by Tsinghua University (22^nd university in the world ranking), by the University of Padua and by the International Waste Working Group (IWWG).

This prestigious invitation reinforces the collaboration between ENEA and the research groups organizing the Symposium and strengthen a former experience of ENEA at the previous Italian edition of the SUM symposium resulted in the organization of a special session on the resource efficiency in the construction sector. The SUM Symposium represents a consolidated high-level international event on circular economy, material recovery and sustainable waste management. Starting from the current edition the symposium will be held alternately in China (SUMEast) and Italy (SUM) in the coming years, with the aim of intensifying partnerships between the two countries.

Antonella Luciano, from the ENEA’s Department for Sustainability, chaired the two sessions on “Waste management policies” and “Construction and demolition waste management” respectively. ENEA's experience and know-how on the management of construction and demolition waste in the comparison between Italy and China was particularly appreciated from the audience.

“The problem of the impact of the construction sector and the entire induced sector”, Antonella Luciano says, “is particular relevant not only in Europe but in the Asian continent, where the sharp development in constructions of the last years has enormously increased the interest of the operators in the sector. Construction and demolition waste accounts for a large amount of the total waste production (30-40%) and the entire sector is responsible for a massive use of resources and energy. Not surprisingly, the EU has identified, in the Action Plan for the circular economy, the construction and demolition waste sector as a priority one on which focusing policies and efficiency actions. An ineffective management system, immature recycling technologies and a not yet developed market of recycled materials, determine low re-use and recycling rates in the construction sector, leading to important challenges, both for Europe and for China, in supporting policies, developing tools and increasing research towards the transition to a full circular economy”.

In particular, the special sessions allowed to present the numerous activities of the Department for Sustainability on resources efficiency strategies and tools and to focus on the ongoing projects CONDEREFF and DECORUM on the efficient management of construction and demolition wastes.

The interest raised among the participants, preludes to potential and important collaborations between the two countries, and once again identifies ENEA as a reference at international level on such an important environmental and economic issue.

Prof. Hongtao Wang, and Prof. Dongbei Yue from Tsinghua University and Prof. Raffaello Cossu and Prof. Maria Cristina Lavagnolo from the IWWG and from the University of Padua, respectively, coordinated the SUMEast 2019 organization.