The Waste to Energy Research and Technology Council ( “SYNERGIA” , www.wtert.gr , www.synergia.com.gr ) was founded in July 2008 by the Earth Engineering Center of Columbia University,
U.S.A., members of the Thermodynamics and Transport Phenomena Laboratory, School of Chemical
Engineering, National Technic al University of Athens, Greece, members of the Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and the company INTRAKAT S.A. of Greece. Also, CEWEP and many other professors from Greek and foreign universities, participate. The major objective of the Council is to bring together professionals from universities, government and industry who are interested in helping Greece to implement technologies for the recovery of energy from solid wastes (WTE) and preserve valuable Greek land for the future generations.

Mission

The development of sustainable waste management in Greece, which includes the whole life cycle of the wastes, through maximizing the recovery of energy and materials and minimizing the environmental impacts on the basis of the scientific knowledge of the effects of various waste treatment technologies in our country and worldwide. In this context, it is recognized that the dominant form of waste management is recycling at the source and composting of preselected waste followed by the thermal treatment (waste to energy WtE through incineration) of MSW with simultaneous energy recovery , as is used in the majority of the currently (end 2008) operating 600 WTE plants worldwide.