Sunil Herat
Griffith University, Australia
Program Director of the
Master of Environmental
Engineering and Pollution
Control
Biography:
Sunil Herat is an Associate
Professor in Waste Management
and Circular Economy at Griffith
University, Brisbane, Australia.
He is the Program Director of
the Master of Environmental
Engineering and Pollution
Control. He is a member of the
Expert Subsidiary Group of
Regional 3R and Circular Economy
Forum of Asia and Pacific,
managed by the United Nations
Centre for Regional Development.
A/Prof Herat has over 20 years'
experience in waste management,
particularly on issues and
challenges related to developing
economies. He is an expert on
training programs in municipal
solid waste management,
hazardous waste management and
cleaner production and
eco-efficiency, and circular
economy and has extensive
experience in training waste
management professionals within
Australia and around the world.
He has conducted training and
capacity building programs in
Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore,
India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan,
Thailand, and Pacific Islands
(Fiji). His latest training
programs involve tackling marine
pollution issues through plastic
waste management and waste to
energy for Indonesia's
government officials. He is also
actively engaged in the revision
of environmental regulations in
Vietnam.
A/Prof Herat has an active
research interest in solid and
hazardous waste management,
especially in developing
countries. He is an adviser to
the United Nations on issues
related to managing electronic
waste (E-waste) in developing
countries with a particular
focus on policy development and
regulatory aspects. He is also
researching issues associated
with implementing 3R (Reduce,
Reuse, Recycle) activities in
developing countries primarily
related to E-waste and plastic
waste regarding policy aspects
such as Extended Producer
Responsibility (EPR). He is also
a contributor to the United
Nations publication GEO 6.
Speech title "Circular economy approach towards solving the E-waste problem"
Abstract-Disposing of used electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), also known as E-waste or WEEE, is a significant problem for many countries worldwide. United Nations estimates that the world generated 62 million metric tonnes (Mt) of e-waste in 2022, mainly from Asia. Poor recycling of E-waste in developing countries has led to significant environmental and human health issues due to the toxic compounds contained in E-waste. E-waste also contains valuable metals worth recovering. However, environmentally sound management (ESM) of e-waste is either absent or limited in developing countries due to the dominance of the informal recycling sector and the need for more resources. Many countries are in the process of developing regulations based on extended producer responsibility (EPR) concepts. This presentation aims to review the current status, issues, and challenges faced by Asia Pacific countries and explore the application of the circular economy approach as a way forward for the ESM of e-waste.
Rouzbeh
Abbassi
Macquarie University, Sydney,
Australia
Director of Research at
the School of Engineering of
Macquarie University
Biography: Dr Rouzbeh Abbassi is a Professor and Director of Research at the School of Engineering of Macquarie University (Sydney, NSW, Australia). On completion of his PhD in from Memorial University (St. John’s, NL, Canada), he was a postdoctoral fellow at Memorial University and also a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Princeton University (Princeton, NJ, USA). Subsequently, he was a senior lecturer at the University of Tasmania (Launceston, TAS, Australia). He was the founder and previous discipline leader for the Bachelor of Civil Engineering at Macquarie University. He also has adjunct professor positions with the University of Tasmania and Memorial University. His research interests consist of developing the methodologies and models for integrated risk, safety, and environmental management in different engineering operations. This includes multidisciplinary researches on safety, risk management, asset integrity, human reliability engineering, and sustainable engineering processes. He actively collaborates with various national and international research and industry partners on multi-million dollar projects in this area, such as the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre (BECRC) and SmartCrete CRC. He has published over 180 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and conferences in the field of his expertise (current h-index: 53). He is a subject editor for the Journal of Process Safety and Environmental Protection, Associate Editor of the Journal of Safety in Extreme Environments, Regional Editor for the International Journal of Reliability and Safety, and a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries.
Kaimin Shih
The University of Hong Kong
Biography: Kaimin Shih is currently a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Associate Dean (Teaching & Learning - UG) of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong. He received his Ph.D. and postdoctoral training in the Environmental Engineering and Science program at Stanford University. After joining the University of Hong Kong, Professor Shih established and led the “Environmental Materials Research Group” in 2007. Their work primarily involves engineering and employing material properties for innovative environmental and energy applications. Professor Shih is particularly interested in exploring waste-to-resources strategies, new environmentally-friendly products, electronic waste and its recycling, pollutant behavior at solution-solid interfaces, advanced oxidation processes for wastewater treatment, and the fate and transport of environmentally persistent pollutants. Professor Shih has published 300+ SCI journal articles with 15,000+ citations (h-index 69), authored 8 book chapters, and edited 2 books. He is ranked as the Top 1% Researcher worldwide by Clarivate Analytics in his research field. Professor Shih is currently the Editor of the Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering (Impact Factor: 7.4), and Associate Editors of Waste Management (Impact Factor: 7.1), and Sustainable Environment Research (Impact Factor: 4.6). Professor Shih was the President of the Overseas Chinese Environmental Engineers and Scientists Association (OCEESA), Chairman of the Hong Kong Waste Management Association (HKWMA), and President of the American Society of Civil Engineers - Greater China Section (ASCE-GCS). Professor Shih also received the University of Hong Kong 2014 Outstanding Teaching Award for contributing to environmental engineering and sustainability education.
Speech title "Reliable Waste Stabilization and Resource Recovery Strategies Assisted by Quantitative Mineral Phase Analysis Technique"
Abstract-Substantial material resource recovery opportunities from waste exist in the urban environment to support more sustainable developments. However, reliably producing safe and quality recoverable requires in-depth environmental materials studies and state-of-the-art fabrication and characterization technologies. For example, the quantitative X-ray diffraction (QXRD) technique can accurately monitor the transformation of mineral phases during the beneficial use of waste sludge and ashes for ceramic products in the construction industry. The quantitative mineral phase analysis technique in such an application can quantitatively describe the behavior and outcome of the concerned hazardous metals in their waste stabilization effects. The work of recovering metallic lead from waste cathode ray tube (CRT) glass also serves as an excellent example to reflect how the quantitative mineral phase analysis technique assisted in the strategy of transforming urban electronic waste into new metal resources. Lastly, the demonstration of recovering phosphorus from wastewater streams as quality slow-releasing fertilizer for agriculture applications leads to new solutions to tackle critical resource challenges with the fast-developing waste-to-resource strategies worldwide.