Reimagining Waste: Ethical and Sustainable Solutions in Waste Management (Erasmus + Blended Intensive Programme)

This ILO aims to equip students with interdisciplinary knowledge and practical skills to design and evaluate ethical, sustainable, and feasible waste management solutions in real-world contexts.

Participants will critically analyse waste generation processes in selected industries or service sectors, taking into account local infrastructure, regulatory frameworks, and environmental, economic, and social constraints. The course integrates principles of sustainability, circular economy, responsible design and ethics to support evidence-based decision-making.

Through collaborative project work, stakeholder role-play debates, and problem-based learning, students will develop innovative waste management and resource management strategies, assess ethical dilemmas, and consider diverse stakeholder perspectives.

Students gain knowledge of sustainable and ethical waste management, develop critical thinking skills, strengthen their ability to analyse ethical dilemmas and environmental problems in social and economic contexts, and enhance their teamwork, communication, and skills in responsible and sustainable design of practical solutions.

Required criteria for participants:

• Level of study: BSc or MSc.
• Desire to work in a multi-disciplinary community
• Be open to use innovative methods and data sources (open-minded teams)
• Be receptive to more than one potential solution
• Good communication skills
• Being able to give honest and positive feedback
• Willingness to share expertise

Desirable criteria: interdisciplinary teams will be formed of individuals with diverse skills/competencies, for example: architecture and design, computer science and information technology, sustainable development and ecological solutions.

The two-level mutual trust-based quality assurance scheme has been adopted:

• at the university level: Warsaw University of Technology has applied its internal quality assurance procedures and structures to the proposal of Reimagining Waste: Ethical and Sustainable Solutions in Waste Management (Erasmus + Blended Intensive Programme) it submitted to ENHANCE and to its implementation - the related learning activities,
• at the Alliance level: the body composed of Education Officers has made decisions regarding the inclusion of Reimagining Waste: Ethical and Sustainable Solutions in Waste Management (Erasmus + Blended Intensive Programme) proposed by Warsaw University of Technology to the Innovative Learning Campus part of the joint ENHANCE educational offer, based on the compliance with the formal requirements and ENHANCE goals.

The Summer School will consist of 7 online meetings prior to the on-site phase, a 1-week on-site phase, and 2 online meetings after the on-site phase.

The first online phase will last from 08.06 until 03.07 (8 meetings).

The on-stie phase will last from 06.07 until 10.07.

The second online phase will last from 20.07 until 31.07 (2 meetings).

• group and public presentations;  - discussions;  - engagement and project responsibility;  - individual (partial) project tasks.

Students will be selected to participate in the summer school based on their answers in the application questionnaire. Particular attention will be paid to previous experience related to the subject area of the school and the student's specialisation during their studies.

The on-site phase of the Summer school will take place in Warsaw.

The online part of the Summer school will be conducted via MsTeams.

Registration to this ILO will be provided through MsForms questionaire that will be provided closer to the application starting date.

Students will work in 7-person interdisciplinary teams, supervised by faculty academic teachers. The task of each team will be to create the project and present the results of the developed solution at the end of the course. 

The activities of the Summer School were divided into three blocks:

• a content block, with lectures delivered by tutors; participants will also be provided with training materials prepared by the tutors, 
• a project block, during which participants will work on a solution to the main task, 
• a soft skills block on topics related to team building and teamwork.

As part of the Summer School, in addition to the substantive part (lectures, workshops and project activities), there will also be a cultural part, including animation and integration activities, a virtual tour of the cities, a trip around the Eco-resort and a get-to-know-you evening.