The three-day International Conference on Solid Waste Management
(Icon SWM 2014) will be held  at Acharya NG Ranga Agriculture University
(ANGRAU), Rajendranagar here from Tuesday.

IconSWM, a platform
created to bring the customised solutions for sustainable waste
management is being organised by the municipal administration and urban
development department in association with Centre for Quality Management
System (CQMS), Jadhavpur University, Kolkata and International Society
of Waste Management, Air & Water (ISWMAW).

The conference will
deliberate on various issues related to innovation and implementation
in sustainable waste treatment technology in the areas of policy and
strategies, technical developments in waste separation and collection,
transportation, waste treatment, energy recovery, lifecycle analysis,
climate change and business opportunities.

Nearly 800 delegates
including state government officials, mayors, councillors, environment
planners, consultants would attend the conference.

The per capita
of MSW generated daily in the country ranges from about 100-500 gms with
an estimated increase of 1 to 1.33 percent annually with an annual
generation of nearly 50 million ton.

The average collection
efficiency for MSW in Indian cities is nearly 72.5 percent and around 70
percent of the cities lack adequate waste transport facility. There are
very few initiatives of energy recovery from wastes, effective
composting, recycling and landfill.

Waste dumping is one of the
common practices that exists with a handful initiatives of sanitary
landfill. The range and complexity of the issues involved in waste
management in the country is enormous.

Chief minister N Kiran
Kumar Reddy will address the inaugural session and the valedictory
session will be addressed by governor ESL Narsimhan on January 30.

The
conference will have plenary and technical sessions. Thematic areas of
discussion would be on  on municipal, C&D, bio-medical, hazardous
and industrial wastes, PPP’s in SWM, case studies on innovative
practices.

Rapid economic growth is leading to urbanisation and
industrialisation generating waste which is adversely affecting the
environment. The percentage of India’s population living in cities and
urban areas from 14 percent in 1947 has more than doubled to 31.5
percent (2011).

According to UN’s estimate, about 90 percent of
future growth will take place in cities. In 2030, when the global
population will rise from the current 6.5 to 8.2 billion people, about
60 percent of the population will live in cities, according to
officials.