Penton's Global Waste Management Symposium Sets Attendance Records, Delivers Exceptional Education and Awards Innovative Presenters

NEW YORK, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Penton's 2016 Global Waste Management Symposium (GWMS), held January 31-February 3, 2016, in Indian Wells, CA, once again logged record attendance and showcased the vanguard of solid waste management in both the professional and academic sphere. Attendance was up 15 percent from the last GWMS, held in 2014. Over 520 professionals and academics from North America, Europe, Asia and Africa attended the event.

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Stellar education sessions, which boasted over 100 technical sessions, spanned the full range of topics in waste management from elevated landfill temperatures to anaerobic digestion, and drew standing-room-only crowds. The top attended presentations were "Elevated Landfill Temperatures"; "(Landfill) Gas Collection & System Management"; "Leachate Treatment"; and "Anaerobic Digestion." The keynotes focused on California's energy and waste management policies, updates on the EPA's work on materials management and sustainability, whether landfills are still relevant and the economic implications of food waste recycling models.

"GWMS is the place to be for state of the art research and technologies for the solid waste management industry and the 2016 event was an excellent venue," said Mark Hickey, Vice President of Penton's Waste360 Group. "Additionally, it offered tremendous networking opportunities with global industry professionals and academics."

Produced in conjunction with the Environmental Research and Education Foundation (EREF), the Symposium is North America's leading technical conference for the presentation of applied and fundamental research and case studies on waste management.

Recognition for the Leading Presentations
The winning presenters provided cutting-edge techniques and innovations on the waste removal topics on the top of everyone's priority lists.

"The caliber of presentations this year was absolutely top-notch, selecting the winners was not easy," said Bryan Staley, President and CEO of EREF. "Every session featured critical content and was incredibly informative, but the committee felt these presenters brought something particularly original and important to the table."

Selected by the GWMS Awards Committee, the winning presenters include:

• Rich Thompson of Republic Services, won best professional presentation for a session on medical waste management entitled, "Infectious (Ebola) Medical Waste Management – Safe Handling, Treatment, and Disposal."
• Henry Kerfoot of Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc., won second place for a professional presentation for his session, "A Potential Process Occurring in MSW Landfills with Elevated Temperatures."
• The best student presentation went to Gregory Hinds of the University of Southern Florida for his session, "Enhanced Methane Production in Solid-State Anaerobic Digestion through Bioaugmentation."
• Jay Renew of the Georgia Institute of Technology won second place for a student presentation for his session, "Immobilization of Heavy Metals by Solidification/Stabilization in Co-Disposed Coal Fly Ash and Concentrated Flue Gas Desulfurization Wastewater Brines."
• Zisu Hao (N.C. State University) and Jason Cox (Golder Associates) were the first and second place winners, respectively, for the poster presentations.

The GWMS is held every other year, and always has a mix of professionals and academics. "We are proud of that diversity," said Staley. "The students get to see the application of what they're learning, and make some vital connections for their future. As for the professionals, it's an opportunity for them to share their case studies with researchers in the field. The information exchange is vital to our progress as an industry."

Eighty-seven percent of attendees indicated that they would download presentation abstracts for future use. Presentation abstracts are available on wastesymposium.com.

The next Global Waste Management Symposium takes place in 2018; information will be posted to www.wastesymposium.com as soon as it becomes available. 

About Penton's Waste360 Group
Penton's Waste360 Group harnesses the power of its many properties to serve the solid waste and recycling industry. The industry widely consumes this content in the form of websites, live events, online learning and digital opportunities and more and includes: Waste360.com, WasteExpo, The Global Waste Management Symposium, The Healthcare Waste Conference, the Waste360 Recycling Summit, and topical and timely e-newsletters. For more information, visit www.waste360.com. 

About Penton
Penton is an innovative information services company that empowers nearly 20 million business decision makers in markets that drive more than 12 trillion dollars in purchases each year. Our products inform with rich industry insights and workflow tools; engage through dynamic events, education and networking; and advance business with powerful marketing services programs. Penton is the way smart businesses buy, sell and grow.

Headquartered in New York, Penton is privately owned by MidOcean Partners and Wasserstein & Co., LP. For more information, visit http://www.penton.com or follow us on Twitter @PentonNow.

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