KUALA LUMPUR – Deputy Secretary General (Energy), Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water, Dato’ Dr. Nadzri Yahya recently officiated the 2nd International Conference on Waste Management and Environment 2015 (ICWME2015) at the Academy of Islamic Studies, University of Malaya (UM).

The conference which ran from the 20 – 22 August 2015 was jointly organised by the Malaysian Society of Waste Management. Present at the opening ceremony were:

Prof. Dr. Noorsaadah Abd Rahman Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation), UM;
Prof. Dr. Masaru Tanaka, President of SWAPI; and
Prof. Dr. Agamuthu Pariatamby, Chairman of ICWME2015 and Head of Center for Research in Waste Management, UM. Environment (MSWME), the Society of Solid Waste Management Experts in Asia and Pacific Islands (SWAPI), the Centre for Research in Waste Management, Sustainability Sciences Cluster, and the Institute of Biological Sciences, UM.

Speaking during the opening ceremony, Prof. Dr. Noorsaadah noted “in UM we are committed in providing platform to bring local and international researchers and experts together to share their ideas, findings and research outcomes in the various aspects of higher education, and to discuss practical challenges encountered and solutions to be adopted.”

“ICWME2015 would serve as a catalyst to strengthen strategies of our journey to become more effective in the management of solid waste. Through ICWME2015 our innovation continues to unfold; it brings us recent updates and breakthrough,” she added.

The main objectives of the conference are to provide a platform for international relationship among the parties involved in waste management and environment and to provide a conducive environment for the participants to share experience in waste management.

The conference was attended by 131 participants comprising 70 international participants and 61 local participants. The international participants are from the United States of America, The European Union, Japan, Nigeria, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Pakistan and so on.

The keynote lecture titled “Sustainable Consumption & Green Technology” will be presented by Dato’ Nazri. Meanwhile, the second keynote lecture titled “Objectives and Knowledge Base for Waste Management in Transformation” will be delivered by Prof. Paul H. Brunner, Vienna University of Technology.

There were 6 keynotes sessions with a total of 26 papers from various area of research presented , while a total of nine sessions discussed a more diversified topic related to waste management and environment. Participants were given the opportunity to present their findings in any one of the three to four parallel schedule throughout the conference, which totalled  125.

Amongst the many papers discussed included solid waste management, water and waste water, biomass and hazardous waste.