RemTech 2012 report

The sixth annual RemTech Remediation Technology Exhibition and Conferences was held in Ferrara, Italy, Sept. 19-21, 2012, under the auspices of various technology societies, including the International Geosynthetics Society–Italian Chapter (AGI-IGS).

The RemTech Expo is an event dedicated to remediation techniques, featuring operators, manufacturers, contractors, institutions, and academics to help build workable solutions for the environment.

Two other elements of this sixth edition were the Coast Expo 2012, third edition, dedicated to coastal protection and in particular to dredging issues, and also Inertia 2012, 1st edition, dedicated to construction, demolition, and waste recycling issues.

The Ferrara Exhibition Centre featured a growing number of exhibitors and visitors—162 exhibits up from 130 last year and 3,600 visitors compared to 3,000 last year (+20%). The 162 booths included sectors such as: characterization, analysis, remediation, monitoring, demolition, general contractors, dredging, geosynthetics, asbestos, requalification, insurance services, design companies, and environmental firms.

At least 10 booths were related to geosynthetics manufacturers, distributors, and installers and, for the first time, there was also an IGS booth.

At the end of the opening conference, chaired by Daniele Cazzuffi, coordinator of the RemTech Scientific Committee and IGS past president, the ceremony of the fourth RemTech Degree Awards took place. These awards were assigned to the seven best theses discussed in Italian universities from Jan. 1, 2011 to July 15, 2012 and related to reclamation technologies.

The focus of RemTech was not only represented by the exhibition, but also by eight official conferences, coordinated by the Scientific Committee. The proceedings of the official conferences (editors: Daniele Cazzuffi and Ilaria Pietrini) are available on CD (with ISBN number) containing 51 papers for a total of 422 pages published by DEA Edizioni. The proceedings are available via: info@deaedizioni.it.

Fifteen countries were represented at RemTech 2012, with official delegations coming from China (12 industry experts), Russia (5 experts), Turkey (3 experts), Algeria (5 experts), Egypt (5 experts), Morocco (4 experts), and Tunisia (6 experts).
The next edition of RemTech will be in Ferrara Sept. 18-20, 2013.

Source: Reported by Daniele Cazzuffi, IGS past president, coordinator of RemTech’s Scientific & Advisory committees, and a member of Geosynthetics magazine’s Editorial Advisory Committee.