The sixteenth edition of the Sardinia Symposium, organized by the IWWG – International Waste Working Group, was held in Santa Margherita di Pula (Cagliari) Italy, from 2nd to 6th October, 2017.
Best papers awards were delivered to the winners in 8 different categories on the final day of the weeklong event. Ms. Sandra Aparcana, representing the UNEP DTU Partnership in Denmark, won the Kriton Curi Award for the best paper on developing country waste management issues titled ‘Barriers and success factors of approaches to formalization of the informal waste sector in developing countries: a review‘.
The paper intends to present to policy and decision-makers, and to waste managers in the private sector, certain aspects that should be taken into account when designing formalization strategies that are adapted to a particular socioeconomic and political-institutional context. This includes the analysis of possible links between types of formalization approaches and barriers, the kinds of barriers that need to be removed, and enabling measures leading to successful formalization in the long term.
The event was attended by over 650 participants with the presentation of more than 550 scientific papers covering different aspects of waste management. With this, the conference provided for extensive discussion on the optimization of existing technologies and development of new ideas, placing particular emphasis on issues such as WEEE, food waste, waste management policies and strategies, landfill gas, and rehabilitation of landfills.