6th ORBIT conference on organic waste recylcing

Organic residues are traditionally seen as wastes which have to be disposed off. At present, in the context of Europe's development towards a "Recycling Society", solutions are required which reduce the environmental impacts of disposal and move towards the recycling of this huge proportion of the municipal and commercial waste in an efficient way. Thereby negative impacts on the atmosphere, water bodies and soils can be avoided and by recycling, organic residues can be utlised for renewable energy production, as feedstock for the biobased economy, as humus and nutrients which are needed to preserve soils world-wide.

Up-to-date approaches regard the organic residues as a highly valuable resource which leads in some areas already to a carbon competition for the use on soils for food production or for the generation of renewable energy. Future valorisation of organic residues as feedstocks for the so-called "Biobased Economy" has just started which consider organic residues as a carbon source for chemical transformation processes for food, chemistry and energy applications.

The Conference ORBIT 2008 will accompany the organic residues from the former waste status into the future as an essential and valuable resource for life on this planet, a resource which can't be "wasted" anymore.