// CleanTechPunt brengt het Locals-project over de grenzen
Op de ‘International Landfill Mining (LFM) Conference’ in Athene zet CleanTechPunt haar werking verder. Daar is bijzondere interesse in hoe de lokale bevolking betrokken wordt bij het ontginnen van stortplaatsen.
Maurice Ballard brengt er eind september een bijdrage als gastspreker over de Locals-werking in ELFM Houthalen-Helchteren.
De korte inhoud van zijn lezing vind je hieronder.
Abstract: Local community participation in technological complex Enhanced Landfill Mining projects.
Today we see the evolution of the ‘great waste vanishing trick’ into a ‘raw materials and energy appearance trick’ called Landfill Mining. These are projects who represent opportunities for creating knowledge, business or societal benefits from the perspective of the community of driving actors. They often represent a potential threat towards health, safety or prosperity from the perspective of the community of people who happen to live near the facilities. Therefore, the idea that landfills will be ‘re-opened’ is a formula where civil resistance can be expected.
In the beginning of 2010, Maurice Ballard, president of CleanTechPunt vzw was asked to join the consortium as a local representative in this consortium of independent scientists, industrialists and representatives of Group Machiels.
The number one priority for him was the safe conditioning and excavation of landfill waste using the most stringent technical, social and ecological criteria. He believes that the involvement of local residents should be done as professionally as any other technological challenge facing this research consortium.
Today the Locals are representing a group of 18 interested and extremely critical people who examines and discusses the whole project, studying the smallest details of the project including the planning and continuing to follow them up. The Locals receive thorough answers to their questions directly from the ELFM Consortium members, technology holders and the scientists.
Being part of the Locals group requires commitment and dedication. Locals members disseminate information, share their gained knowledge and discuss matters with their neighbours, acquaintances, friends and family members.
In the lecture of Maurice Ballard, he will demonstrate the benefits and the needs of the functioning of an organized group of local inhabitants in the development of an Enhanced Landfill Mining project, where previously landfilled waste is going to be used for recycling and energy production.
For more information about Enhanced Landfill Mining project in Houthalen- Helchteren, Belgium:
