On 24 September 2021, the German RETech Partnership and the International Urban and Regional Cooperation programme of the European Union together organised an exclusive webinar on solid waste management in Indian cities. This workshop is bi-annually organised by the REtech Partnership to inform its members on the ongoing and forthcoming activities and initiatives of the working group and developments in India.
This year, the IURC Asia & Australasia project team invited select cities to present and interact with various stakeholders from Germany and India. This was a closed, focused meeting with a small number of experts deliberating upon the challenges and potential solutions in plastic recycling/Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)/biogas and processing of mixed municipal waste, knowledge exchange, opportunities for cooperation, etc. The workshop provided an opportunity to Indian city stakeholders to present on their developments and talk about the current challenges, potential opportunities, and solutions or success stories in the cities.
The workshop started with a brief introduction and welcome address by the teams of German Retech Partnership and IURC Asia & Australasia in India. After this, three IUC/IURC cities, namely Leh, Gangtok and Vijayawada, presented their respective challenges, opportunities, best practices in the area of solid waste management.
During the workshop, the experts from the working group suggested potential solutions to the Indian cities and expressed interest to further work with selected cities on specific challenges regarding solid waste management. It is learnt that Leh city could be supported for setting up a waste composting plant with specific support from German experts. It was understood that more in-depth discussions will be undertaken between the German experts and Indian cities to know the actual need and relevant solutions. The experts from Germany are ready to cooperate with Indian cities. IURC and Retech Partnership can further facilitate the cooperation between the cities and experts.