Sweden Want's Your... Garbage?

I have posted this in Fragile Earth, however what I am about to share with you is a win for our fragile planet!

I read an article last night stating the Sweden has officially run out of rubbish! I know, seems impossible right? How can a nation of 9.5 million people, who are constantly generating waste products, manage to get thousands of tons of rubbish to vanish into thin air?

They managed this through a process called the 'waste-to-energy incineration program', where it is exactly how it sounds, they burn all their rubbish and use the heat generated to power their homes.

The Scandinavian nation of more than 9.5 million citizens has run out of garbage; while this is a positive – almost enviable – predicament for a country to be facing, Sweden now has to search for rubbish outside of its borders to generate its waste-to-energy incineration program. It’s namely Norway officials who are now shipping in 80,000 tons of refuse annually to fuel the country with outside waste.

My only question is, why aren't the rest of us doing that to make cheaper electricity and solve the waste problem once and for all? At least Sweden is taking it upon it's self to do the dirty work for us and harness all the energy that we've buried, set out to sea and theorised about blasting into space! Go Sweden!

Now, go figure out which continent you belong to

Peace

Full Article

Living in Sweden for the last 14 years, I can tell you out off all the countries I have lived in and visited Sweden by far is the most active when it comes to recycling and waste management. So it is quiet possible they are running short.

Though the claim off cheaper electricity I have to call BS on that as every year like many countries I see the power bills rising more than the income.

good on sweden for trying i was big into recycling until i watched a television programme one night that showed our rubbish that we sort out in the u.k and some areas will fine you if you do not .

i cannot remember the exact location it was taken to but i think it was china or india and it was all dumped on a beach since then i have not bothered sorting my rubbish out if they are not going to bother and ship it round the world stuff them

reply to post by TheDon


It would appear that perhaps this is not an answer to an energy crisis, I would have thought it would have had some impact? Perhaps countries are hording their energy whilst there is the 'energy crisis' going on or perhaps it doesn't produce much electricity. Still though, they have effectively solved the waste issue! That is a big plus for me.

And how exactly is burning garbage "green"? I lived in Sweden, I live next door to Sweden now. Norway typically ends up selling a lot of it's stored energy to Sweden at the dismay of Norwegians as it causes Norwegians to have to pay more for their electric bills.

Moral of the story: I'm moving back to Sweden.

reply to post by Auricom


Have you seen trash cities? The deep excavations to bury garbage? It's expensive and destroys the surrounding area, that is also not green. At least they get rid of it and harness some energy at the same time, definitely greener than harassing fossil fuels.

I live in Norway. Here the people try to recycle as much as possible. Organic waste is used to produce natural gas. All the buses in Oslo is powered by that. Cans, bottles, paper and plastic are recycled. The rest gets incinerated and drive a power plant. The heat from the incinerator is also used to heat buildings and some roads in the winter. The liquid used to heat the public buildings is actualy sewerage. It is always difficult for me to visit other places where no recycling goes on. Certain cities are running out of waste, and there are talks about importing waste from the UK, not sure if it is already being done though.

reply to post by Hellhound604


I wish the rest of the world would take a page from your books! Nothing should be wasted, nothing is in nature and that is a near perfect design.

Okay, that is very good, I presume there is some ash? where does that go? most plastic's produce toxins when they burn, what happens to that? One of the neighbouring countries? depending on which way the wind is blowing?
Or, perhaps the plastic is recovered during sorting? I hope so.

reply to post by iRoyalty


Burning waste to make energy is not a sensible thing to do. Pollutants are released that have an adverse effect of people and nature. It is a lazy sloppy way of dealing with waste..

reply to post by purplemer


And burning carbon based fossil fuels isn't? It's kind of solving one problem and creating another.. but it's a problem we made with fossil fuels anyway, I still think it's much better than having the trash cities and barges.

We do this in the UK as well.

My father and brother both work for the same company who have 2 sites doing this. One site burns household waste to produce electricity.

The other is a recycling site, part of that site is to shred the materials which is then bailed up like hay and sold as fuel to many countries.

He is a link to the household waste burning site.

www.veoliaenvironmentalservices.co.uk...

reply to post by purplemer


There high standards for the system. The filtring part.

Here (neighbours of Sweden) it is also becoming increasingly popular for the government companies (energy is not privatised here) to buy in trash from different eu nations and burn it. There are not many factories, which are able to do it according to standards, but here these are met, so they can do it. Being often in the region, the air quality is just the same as everywhere else in the city - good. Haven´t noticed any difference, besides ther e being a bit better, as less cars driving around.

reply to post by iRoyalty

Someone tell the Swedes to come to the USA, starting with Washington, D.C.

Theres tons of human garbage in the White House, Capitol building and Supreme Court.

iRoyalty
reply to post by purplemer

 

And burning carbon based fossil fuels isn't? It's kind of solving one problem and creating another.. but it's a problem we made with fossil fuels anyway, I still think it's much better than having the trash cities and barges.

If you think that breathing in heavy metals, dioxins and furans to be better than breathing in carbon dioxide then be my guess. These incinerators are not the answer to the problem they cause health problems and are normally put in poor parts of the cities.

If you have a problem with waste address it at source and reduce the consumption of products and waste material. This is not an answer. It is the dirty way out.

reply to post by iRoyalty


Thats cool and all.....but it would be better if they did like Brazil and chemically broke down all the components of their garbage. That is really solving the waste issue. They get raw materials and bio fuels for their trouble.

REAL recycling with no contamination.

reply to post by Cabin


Where in Sweeden do they put the incinerators. In the UK they are put in poor areas of the city or industrial areas where the prevailing winds drag the toxins to areas will low economic activity.. There are reasons they do not put them in rich areas. There are reasons why NGOs like Greenpeace are firmly against the use of these incineration. You put waste in and you get waste out. This is just a method of green washing incineration.

I cannot understand why people are so against burying rubbish, garbage or whatever you want to call it Everything and I mean everything comes from the earth. Ok it may not come from your bit of earth but non the less nothing is conjoured from thin air. It's nice to to be full on for recycling. But what about the countries (which by the way are nearly all third world countries) that have their whole economies are dependant on the raw materials to make the items that the recycled materials make instead ? No matter what, heavy metals, plastics, everything originally come from the earth.

reply to post by iRoyalty


I guess we have all our opinions when it comes to trash, unless you work in the field and have a understanding of the concerns people have.

First, burning trash has been going on for the last few decades to produce electricity, but like the incinerators I have seen they are burning trash and the emissions from the stacks are really high with pollutants. I have seen the incinerators get fined by the EPA but pay the fine and keep burning. So the question is, is this the best alternative to our waste?

Been at landfills, the engineering that goes into them to protect the ground water is impressive, and the waste water from the trash (Leachate) is pumped out and sent to treatment plants, averages about 98% water and everything else that we as individuals through out daily, and the gas systems that suck the methane out of the garbage is being used to generate electricity, and the emissions from this are 99% cleaner than just the standard garbage incinerators.

Sure a landfill can be an eye sore for those that live around them, but if you buy a home in the area of a landfill I don't think you have the right to complain about it. I have seen landfill turned into golf courses, ski hills, Solar panel hills, nature preserves for birds and wildlife.

The problem in the US and I would say most countries is people just don't understand what to do with trash

TheDon
Living in Sweden for the last 14 years, I can tell you out off all the countries I have lived in and visited Sweden by far is the most active when it comes to recycling and waste management. So it is quiet possible they are running short.

Though the claim off cheaper electricity I have to call BS on that as every year like many countries I see the power bills rising more than the income.

Since the companies are selling the cheaper electricity for profit in other eu countries Sweden citizens do not get the benefit but the power companies are making a unreasonable high profit instead. Capitalism do not work when all the companies agree to screw the customers (from my point of view it does not work well otherwise either but that is another story).