Between the 5th and 9th of October, Howard and Tim Robinson of Phoenix Engineering attended the biennial International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium, held at Forte Village in South Sardinia. Howard is a member of the International Board of the International Waste Management Group (IWWG) who have organised the Symposium since 1987.
Both Howard and Tim presented papers on landfill leachate treatment methods, at lab-scale and at existing fully-operational leachate treatment plants. The Symposium was attended by nearly 750 delegates, from more than 70 countries, and is the biggest such meeting in the World, with nearly 500 technical presentations, and many specialist workshops and discussion groups, in eight parallel sessions, from 9.00am to 7.40pm for 5 days.
Howard and Tim led a specialist training course on Treatment of Leachates, which covered all aspects of leachate management, including the main contaminants present in leachates, as well as appropriate on-site treatment methods for leachates in many different countries.
During the week Howard attended several important ’round-table’ discussions with fellow IWWG members, in addition to presenting papers and chairing multiple sessions. Howard presented two technical papers; firstly his paper entitled “Removal of Toxic Metals during Biological Treatment of Landfill Leachates”, focussed on the methods of metals removal within leachates. His presentation on “The use of Reed Bed Systems for Methane Removal from Landfill Leachates”, featured a case study of a full-scale reed bed leachate treatment system in Worcestershire.
Tim presented a paper entitled “Use of Pilot-Scale Treatability Trials in the design of full-scale Leachate Treatment Plants”, which is currently being reviewed for publication in the IWWG Journal. Tim also contributed to the organisation of the conference, working as a member of staff assisting in the IT and Audio setup in each lecture theatre.
As well as featuring as a compere for the popular ‘Sardinia’s Got Talent’ show on the Thursday evening, Howard also organised the Wednesday night football tournament, in which over 70 conference delegates took part.
Both Howard and Tim felt that the conference was a very valuable experience, attending many interesting presentations on leachate treatment methods, landfilling, and waste management.
