A decade of knowledge-sharing culminates in Hangzhou were developing-country professionals will see China’s WtE transformation firsthand and learn how to bring it home.

Applications are now open for the 10th International Training Workshop on Waste-to-Energy (WtE), taking place November 1–14, 2026 on the campus of Yuquan, Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. This year’s edition carries a special theme “A Decade of Global Knowledge in Waste-to-Energy” marking ten years since the program’s launch in 2016, and ten years of a single guiding purpose: helping the Global South and emerging economies adapt China’s rapid progress in waste management to their own realities as well offering a deeper look at the roughly two decades of policy, research, and engineering that transformed how China manages its waste.

Hosted by China’s Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Science and Technology, and organized by Zhejiang University’s College of Energy Engineering together with Zhejiang University of Technology, the National Engineering Research Center for Clean Utilization Technology and Equipment of Solid Waste Energy, the International Consultant Committee of Waste to Energy (ICCWtE) and the Global Waste to Energy Research and Technology Council (WtERT), the workshop offers up to 20 selected candidates from developing countries a fully funded, two-week immersion into the science, technology, and policy behind China’s WtE transformation.

Understanding a 20-year transformation
Over the past two decades, China has moved from heavy reliance on landfill to some of the world’s most developed Waste-to-Energy infrastructure. That shift didn’t happen through a single breakthrough, it happened through sustained investment in research, changes in policy, and steady improvements in engineering that made WtE technology increasingly affordable, including for cities with far fewer resources than China’s largest metropolitan areas. The workshop is built to unpack that process: what worked, what didn’t, and which parts of the experience are genuinely transferable to other emerging economies.

A decade of impact
Since 2016, the program has run nine editions and trained close to 230 professionals from more than 40 developing countries. Alumni now work across research institutions, government agencies, and industry, applying what they learned in China to build waste-management systems suited to their own countries’ needs. That, ultimately, is the point of the program: not simply to showcase China’s progress, but to translate it into practical tools other emerging economies can use.

Leading academics, global perspective
The 10th edition’s curriculum is delivered by faculty from top-ranked universities across China and Europe, alongside senior industry engineers, combining China’s on-the-ground experience with international technical and policy perspective, so participants leave with solutions adaptable well beyond China’s borders.

The city of Hangzhou, A Global Leader in Zero-Waste Innovation and host of the training workshop
In January 2026, Hangzhou was named by the United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on the Zero Waste Economy as one of the world’s “20 Cities Towards Zero Waste.” The city,  home to over 12.6 million people and an economy exceeding 2 trillion yuan (~USD 285 billion), has cut daily per-capita household waste from 1.06 kg in 2021 to 0.99 kg in 2024, keeps industrial solid-waste utilization above 98%, and became, by the end of 2020, the first major Chinese city to achieve zero landfill of household waste. Its citywide smart waste-management platform monitors thousands of collection points, vehicles, and facilities in real time,  proof that this transformation is achievable at massive scale, and a model participants can study up close.

How to apply
Interested researchers, government officials, engineers, and industry professionals from developing countries are invited to apply by September 10, 2026. There is no tuition fee; the organizers cover accommodation, meals, local transportation, and insurance during the stay. Applicants are responsible for international travel and visa costs.

Read the Call for Participants