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Griese: Rhineland-Palatinate is a pioneer in the circular economy

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"Climate change and its consequences at regional and global level, as well as increasing resource consumption, are leading to steadily increasing pressure on the limited environmental resources available," said State Secretary for the Environment Thomas Griese at the end of the eighth International Circular Economy Week in Mainz.

Rhineland-Palatinate has a multitude of innovative approaches to solutions for the water, energy and resource management in order to meet these challenges. From 23 to 27 October 2017, representatives from science, politics and industry presented the latest technologies and environmental service strategies from Rhineland-Palatinate to more than 160 participants from 20 countries, such as Mexico, Senegal and Morocco.

"Rhineland-Palatinate with its many medium-sized companies is at the forefront of Germany's efforts to optimise resources, protect the climate and use renewable energies," said Griese. Nationwide, about 13,000 people are employed in the field of environmental technologies and the industry already accounts for eleven percent of the total gross domestic product. This shows that "Rhineland-Palatinate is a pioneer in environmental technologies  - also in an international context - and is well equipped for the future," explained the State Secretary. Griese said that an economic approach in which economy and ecology go hand in hand was gaining in importance.

On the eighth International Circular Economy and Waste Recycling Week

In addition to the International Conference on Circular Economy and Waste Management on 25 October 2017, the international guests were offered a varied programme of visits to best practice projects in the fields of waste, water and energy management and resource efficiency. For example, the participants visited the Stadtwerke Trier and its ultra-modern sewage treatment plant with biogas production, the Morbach energy landscape, the LED floodlight system of the community of Hüffler, the local heating network in Birkenfeld, the biogas plant of Veolia Umweltservice West GmbH in Neubrücke, the biogas plant of Condé Bionergie GmbH & Co. KG in Birkenfeld, Rhein-Hunsrück-Entsorgung in Kirchberg, Howatherm Klimatechnik GmbH in Brücken, KSB AG in Frankenthal, ZAK - Zentrale Abfallwirtschaft in Kaiserslautern with the biowaste fermentation plant and the Hengstbacherhof plant-based sewage treatment plant of Areal GmbH in Sankt Alban.

The International Circular Economy Week is an event of the Ministry for the Environment, Energy, Food and Forestry of Rhineland-Palatinate (MUEEF) and the Institute for Applied Material Flow Management (IfaS) of the University of Applied Sciences Trier, supported by Ecoliance Rheinland-Pfalz e.V., the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), the INTERREG project GREATER GREEN and the Engagement Global gGmbH with its service point Local Authorities in the One World with funds of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).


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