Zero waste for Sweden
Sweden is witness to a “recycling revolution”, a country that could easily reach zero waste.
There’s a “recycling revolution” happening in Sweden – one that has pushed the country closer to zero waste than ever before. In fact, less than one per cent of Sweden’s household garbage ends up in landfills today.
The northern country has reached a managing point where they are able to import garbage from UK, Italy, Norway and Ireland in order to support their 32 waste-to-energy (WTE) plants, thing they’ve been doing for years.
“Waste today is a commodity in a different way than it has been. It’s not only waste, it’s a business,” explained Swedish Waste Management communications director Anna-Carin Gripwell in a statement.
Each year, a person from Sweden makes only 461 kilograms of waste, a number that is about half of the rest of the European countries. Sweden is also special because of the controversial program that incinerates almost two million tons of trash every year. It is the same process that transforms the garbage into power.
“When waste sits in landfills, leaking methane gas and other greenhouse gasses, it is obviously not good for the environment,” Gripwell said of traditional dump sites. So Sweden focused on developing alternatives to reduce the amount of toxins seeping into the ground.
Before the waste goes to the incinerator plants, it is sorted regarding home and business owners, organic waste is collected, paper is collected, and things that can be used are filtered.
According to Swedish law, producers have to take all costs that is related to the disposal and recycling.