The history of waste is a long journey of awareness, transformation and evolution. The waste management industry has gone from being a scrap manager to a producer of sustainable secondary raw materials. A transformation from which a new development model was born: the circular economy.
It is only through research and development, and the investments made by companies with the right legislative framework and incentives, that high levels of expertise and efficiency have been achieved. Collection and sorting are fundamental steps in the process that cannot be underestimated and simply harmonised.
The best results must be achieved but local demographical, societal, and operational aspects need to be considered because waste management is in its essence also a basic service for our citizens and industries.
The industrial model for waste management is completely different from the model of the manufacturing industry, and its strength is its adaptability to change, which happens continuously, every minute. For this reason, we must continue to maintain high technological standards and high levels of sustainability and combat green washing solutions, which would undermine all the work done.
The entire waste management industry will only be able to achieve the deserved legislative, economic, and social recognition by putting sustainability at the centre.
A presentation by Paolo Campanella, Technical Officer at FEAD – European Waste Management Association.
About Paolo Campanella
Paolo joined FEAD in January 2022 as the Technical Officer. He provides support and coordination to FEAD’s work on technical issues, with a particular emphasis on waste collection, material and organic recovery, chemicals and hazardous waste, and landfills. He graduated from the University of Padova with a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering, followed by a master’s degree with a specialisation in soil protection in 2012.
Paolo has worked as an engineer and environmental consultant and as Technical Director for a waste management and remediation company. He is still a technical consultant for the Province of Bari where he sits on a panel evaluating and approving waste management projects.
About FEAD – European Waste Management Association
FEAD is the European Waste Management Association that represents the private waste management and resource industry across Europe.
Our members are national waste management associations covering 17 EU and EFTA countries, and the UK. They represent about 3,000 companies with activities in all forms of waste management.
Our companies have an approximate 60% share in the household waste market and handle more than 75% of industrial and commercial waste in Europe. Their combined annual turnover is approximately € 75 billion.
These companies employ over 320,000 people who operate around 2,400 recycling and sorting centres, 1,100 composting sites, 260 waste-to-energy plants and 900 controlled landfills. Read more about FEAD.
Paolo Campanella is speaker at the 2023 edition of the Circular Chemistry Conference which takes place at the Center Court of the Brightlands Chemelot Campus.