GWC and WtERT Family

WasteCulture is operated by WtERT Germany GmbH. We are part of the Waste-to-Energy Research and Technology family, an international, high-level technical group that facilitates dialogue among a diverse range of stakeholders, including scientists, engineers, community advocates, the business community, universities, and government representatives. The aim of WtERT is to promote sustainable waste management solutions worldwide.

The Global WtERT Council was established in 2002 as a significant initiative of the Earth Engineering Center (EEC) at Columbia University in New York, U.S.A. Since 1997, the EEC has been engaged in research on the generation and management of used materials and products in the U.S. and globally.

For a complete list of WtERT organizations, please visit the Global WtERT Council website.

 

A Note from Werner Bauer, General Manager of WasteCulture

30 Years of Experience in Waste Management 

For more than 30 years now, my team and I have been actively involved in shaping Germany's outstanding waste management system. This includes more than 10 years of research projects in landfill sites, stand-out construction projects for composting and fermentation, and the general planning of the world's first sorting plant at an international airport.

We have been operating the municipal network ForumZ for almost as long and are delighted with the lively exchange of knowledge that now takes place among the municipalities firmly anchored in their respective regions. In order to always have access to the latest published knowledge, we have been cooperating with national and international specialist publishers, event organizers, and scientists for around 25 years to make their publications available to our network and a broad specialist audience. This has resulted in well over 40,000 publications being archived and linked to their authors.

In 2009, we seized the opportunity to become part of the WtERT network, raising our knowledge and the experience of our partners from local authorities, academia, and practice to an international level. What I have found in terms of solutions at all levels of waste and recyclables management, from prevention to optimal recycling, never ceases to amaze and fascinate me.

From Wtert to WasteCulture

That is why we have also taken on an active role in setting up the WtERT Decision Support System and, as a first step, anchoring much of our knowledge and contacts in WtERT.net.

I am infinitely grateful for the experiences I have had in this context—I have formed friendships with many of the people I have met on my travels. 

Against this backdrop, if I were to summarise my findings, it would be that outstanding solutions can only be achieved through the interaction of technology, social acceptance, and the companies involved, and that this requires a good set of rules, i.e., good governance, which sets the framework and monitors expectations.

In an ideal world, all stakeholders would keep planetary boundaries in mind and start dealing with waste when dealing with things. Where they are designed and produced, how sensibly they are transported, why we buy them, and whether we handle them with care.

Even though I am convinced of the enormous importance of overcoming the global disposal of household waste (profit) for the reduction of greenhouse gases (politics) and know that this can only be achieved if waste is recycled AND thermally recovered (technology, acceptance), I see the identity of my work as broader.

Today, my motivation is to create a network in which people are inspired by great ideas and solutions, where they share their own ideas and are happy when these ideas are taken up and adapted to create the best possible solution somewhere else in the world (explore, share, and co-create). 

With this identity in mind, it was obvious to place all of this under the heading of a shared waste culture. The term is still poorly defined—I understand it to mean that those involved are aware that every small and large interaction with waste contributes to protecting the climate and the environment, thus expressing their own culture.

It is important enough to give this movement a name: WasteCulture.