The Embassy of Sweden in Athens and the Hellenic-Swedish Chamber of Commerce, organized a Waste Management Forum entitled “The Swedish example; turning Waste into a resource“. The event took place at the Radisson Blu Park Hotel, in Athens, on Tuesday, April 28, 2015.
Mr. Gunnar Fredriksson, Senior Advisor, Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, Mr. Nils Lundkvist, Manager Technical Strategy, Stockholm Water and Mr. Carl Österlin, PHD Researcher, Stockholm University (Environment, Resource Dynamics and Management Group, Department of Physical Geography)participated from Sweden.
Mrs. Afroditi Biza, Vice-President, Association of Municipalities in the Attica Region – Solid Waste Management, spoke about Attica Prefecture’s Planning on Waste Management, while the Ministry of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy participated with a speech of Mr. Dimitris Politopoulos, and the Ministry of Economy, Infrastructure, Shipping and Tourism, with a speech by Mr. Lefteris Papavasilopoulos. Moreover, the event was addressed by Mr. Nikos Chiotakis, Chairman of the Board & C.E.O., P.E.T.A. SA who also represented KEDE, Mrs. Christina Efthimiatou, Chemical Engineer, Ministry of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy, Mr. Andreas Roumelis, Head of Power generation & industrial projects, ΑΒΒ and Prof. Maria Loizidou, School of Chemical Engineering, Unit of Environmental Science and Technology – National, Technical University of Athens.
Waste management has been recognized as one of the most pressing problems in Greece. However, during the last years the waste management industry in Greece is in the process of being upgraded and becoming a well-structured, organized and environmentally responsible activity with specific goals, mostly in urban areas.
The target of this forum was to bring together national and local government, and private companies involved in the sector with their Swedish counterparts. This forum explored the steps that need to be taken in order for Greece to become part of the European recycling society. The actions that will contribute to the implementation of EU waste targets by learning through the Swedish example were also discussed in the forum.
Sponsors of the event were the companies ΑΒΒ, HELECTOR, KAOUSSIS and SARACAKIS GROUP-VOLVO. Supporter was ERICSSON and Media Sponsors were KATHIMERINI newspaper and SKAI.
