With the added benefit of Katharina Kummer Peiry's experience as a key player in international waste management policy, during her tenure as Executive Secretary of the Basel Convention from 2007 to 2012, Kummer EcoConsult has been reactivated in September 2012, and is exploring new avenues.

Achieving a Circular Economy and green materials management is a new environmental hot topic. Traditionally, wastes were seen only as a problem: population growth, urbanization, economic development, changing production and consumption patterns, and new technologies have led to a veritable 'waste crisis' in many parts of the world, creating severe health and environmental hazards. Existing waste management systems are insufficient, and costs are often prohibitive. A paradigm shift can create a win-win situation: with the necessary enabling framework and safeguards, environmentally sound resource or energy recovery from wastes can generate green jobs and business opportunities while protecting human health and the environment. Environmentally sound waste management can be good business, and could become a model area for greening the economy without hindering development or erecting new barriers to trade.