The 7th World Congress on Recovery, Recycling and Re-integration (3-R)
Messel bursar Aruna Manipura reports from the meeting held in Beijing, China from 25-29 September 2005
 The 7th World Congress on Recovery, Recycling and Re-integration (3R) was held in Beijing from 25-29 September 2005. This conference was one of the 3-R Congress series, which originated from the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. It was organised by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Swiss Academy of Engineering Science with the support of the State Environmental Protection Administration of China.
The conference focused on the shortage of resources and energy worldwide, and the adverse effects of environmental pollution due to industrial processes, together with their social and economic impact. The presentations included such topics as renewable and biomass energy, green chemistry and green processes, biological process engineering, environmental technology, process integration and socio-economic issues.
Over 650 papers were presented from more than 55 countries. They varied from fundamental experiments and theoretical modelling to applied research with national, regional and international topics for enhancing research and development in the 3-R economy.
I was very pleased to get some instant feedback after presenting my research on bioprocess development for nitrogenous compounds removal from metal refinery wastewater. Some delegates from the mineral industry found parallels with their own work.
A presentation by Dr. H. Brandi from Switzerland was especially thought-provoking as it directly addressed the core areas of my current research. He talked about the metal-microbe-interactions and their biotechnological applications for mineral waste treatment. The poster session and workshops were also useful for one-to-one interaction with presenters in exchanging the ideas.
Many of the other presentations were of interest to me, and though I focussed on biological process engineering and environmental technology, I was also interested such areas as process system integration, green chemistry and green processes. An overlapping time schedule made it difficult to get to everything.
Cultural Interaction
Having researchers converging on one place from more than 55 countries gave a truly multicultural aspect to this congress and I welcomed the opportunity to meet people with different cultural backgrounds from East to West and North to South. For so long a closed culture, China has much to offer a foreigner. Taking in such magnificent sights as the Great Wall, The Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, the Ming Tombs, and the Forbidden City made it a memorable visit, not to mention trying out chop sticks and sampling a variety of Chinese cuisine.
Chinese university experience
Happily I met some Chinese as well as other international students too, thanks to my stay at Beijing Agricultural University (West campus). This is one of the leading agricultural universities in China with two campuses in Beijing . I also visited Tsinghua University , one of the leading engineering universities in China .
Acknowledgements
I gratefully thank both SCI and the Messel Travel Award committee for the travel grant which covered the conference registration fee and met some my travel costs. The award made my life very much easier and I would encourage graduate students around the world to join SCI and make use of the benefits. I’d also like to thank my supervisor, Dr. J. E. Burgess who introduced me to SCI and the Messel Travel Bursary and for doing all the hard work behind the scenes to enable me to attend.
Aruna Manipura
Rhodes University
South Africa
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