AIMS AND MISSION

AIMS

The Waste to Energy Research Council (“SYNERGIA”) is the Greek branch of the Global Waste to Energy Research and Technology Council of Earth Engineering Center- Columbia University. It was founded in 2008 by Columbia University and Professor Nick Themelis, in collaboration with the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and other universities, professors and organizations like CEWEP (Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants).

The major objective of the Council is to bring together professionals from universities, government and industry who are interested in helping Greece to implement technologies for the recovery of energy from solid wastes (WTE).

MISSION

The mission of WTERT is the development of integrated sustainable waste management systems in Greece and neighboring countries. This include a holistic approach throughout the entire life cycle of waste management with main objective the optimization of processes for recovery of materials and energy from waste by taking into account environmental, social and economic factors associated with these techniques. In this context, it is recognized that the most sustainable treatment of waste is recycling and composting followed by the thermal treatment of MSW and landfilling with energy recovery.

According to Directive 2008/98, the hierarchy of municipal waste management methods is presented to the next picture: