REWAS 2022: Developing tomorrow's technical cycles

Abstract

REWAS, a sustainability driven conference within The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS), has a long history of bringing together academia and industry to exchange and reflect on the latest technology developments in the process optimization and waste management fields. The first edition of REWAS (REcycling and WASte symposium) took place in 1999. The scope of the conference has since then broadened to include environmental sustainability, resource management and manufacturing efficiency, liaising these developments to the metallurgical industry in a broader societal and systemic context. The 2022 edition of REWAS which will be hosted at the TMS 2022 Annual Meeting & Exhibition in Anaheim, California, provides a resolute outlook towards Developing Tomorrow's Technical Cycles. Within the metals and materials industry, technical cycles refer to the ensemble of strategies and processes applied to the development of sustainable product loops with the intent to eliminate waste and instead rethink, reuse and upcycle products. The success of technical cycles requires strengthening our circular approach for product life cycle design by providing guidelines and implementation examples to the developers, designers, policy makers and business managers. REWAS promotes such strategies within a priority sector identified for Circular Economy enablement: raw materials supply and management. REWAS 2022 consists of six symposia, and abstract submissions are expected in summer 2021. Topics include recycling and sustainability within the aluminum industry, specifically on casting technologies, recovery of metals from complex products and systems, decarbonization of the metallurgical and manufacturing industry, sustainable production and development perspectives, as well as automatization and digitalization for advanced manufacturing. REWAS 2022 will also include an honorary symposium for Dr. Diran Apelian, whose contributions in metals processing, aluminum and battery recycling, sustainability, education in materials science and more have shaped the path for sustainable materials processing.