Community | November 04, 2012 | 16 comments

Sweden Wants Your Trash

source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/10/28/163823839/sweden-wants-your-trash?ft=3&f=1117...

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Vierotchka

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/10/28/163823839/sweden-wants...

Move over Abba, Sweden has found new fame. The small Nordic country is breaking records — in waste. Sweden's program of generating energy from garbage is wildly successful, but recently its success has also generated a surprising issue: There is simply not enough trash.

Only 4 percent of Swedish garbage ends up in a landfill, according to Swedish Waste Management. Due to its efficiency in converting waste to renewable energy, Sweden has recently begun importing around 800,000 tons of trash annually from other countries.

Norway is now paying Sweden to take its garbage. Swedish sights are also set on Bulgaria, Romania and Italy as future trash exporters, as Catarina Ostlund, a senior advisor for the country's environmental protection agency, told PRI. Those countries rely heavily on landfills – a highly inefficient and environmentally degrading system.

Sweden is leading the way in waste management, but it is one of few. We live in a world where nearly 70 percent of deep sea Arctic creatures are in contact with human trash like plastic bags and beer bottles. In the United States, where the EPA says 250 million tons of trash was generated in 2010 alone, only about 34 percent was recycled.

Sweden creates energy for around 250,000 homes and powers one-fifth of the district heating system, Swedish Waste Managements says. Its incineration plants offer a look into the future where countries could potentially make money off of their trash — and not just dump it in the ocean or bury it in mass landfills.

"I would say maybe in the future, this waste will be valued even more," Ostlund said. "So maybe you could sell your waste, because there will be a shortage of resources within the world."

Leave it to the Scandinavians to make even trash chic.
  1. groups:
    Community,   Green,   World News,   Earth Care,   2 more
  2. tags:
    Environment,  Energy,  Recycling,  Waste,  4 more
  3. recommended by:
    Vierotchka,
    covelogibbs
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16 comments // Sweden Wants Your Trash

  • circlesquared
    • +1
      circlesquared  

    • since recycling I have cut my trash to the dump weekly to about 80% including four kids in the house one still wearing diapers I hate to use...should finish I guess by trying cloth again, but point being if you actually separate stuff to send to the right place we don't have much to burn. Problem number one here is that as with everything else relevant to money our trash companies in FL are corrupt and have been caught dumping recycling even though they charge more money to pick it up. At least selling it to Sweden they can make an honest buck.

    • 7 months ago
  • Vierotchka
    • +2
      Vierotchka  
    • circlesquared:

      I used square cloth diapers folded in two to make a triangle and held in place with a large safety pin, we didn't have throwaway diapers in those days. It was admittedly hard work: scraping, soaking, washing and boiling them every day - we used two cloths at a time, muslin next to the skin and terry cloth to absorb all the wee. Four to six changes a day, too. :)

    • 7 months ago
  • circlesquared
    • +1
      circlesquared  
    • Vierotchka:

      tried that with my first, was so hard to find the time and even harder without a washing machine in the house...I hear in China the babies just have slits in their clothes so it falls out wherever...was told that's why they always take their shoes off when going indoors as to not track shite all over the house...guess that's another way to do it. With my third we had him potty trained very early...kids can learn anything and everything before their walls are placed.

    • 7 months ago
  • Vierotchka
  • EmperorThan
  • Vierotchka
  • ThoughtNu
    • +1
      ThoughtNu  
    • Image

    • Great for them.

      Did you know that you can cash in on trash? The process, Pyrolysis converts all plastic waste into a diesel grade fuel . With certain government incentives , this is about as close to a turn key business as it gets ; BUT with one major caveat; air suppression; to mitigate collateral air pollution from the process.

      http://www.pyrolysis.biz/

    • 7 months ago
  • WagonMaster
    • +2
      WagonMaster  

    • And here we sit, NIMBYing the hell out if wind farms and solar panels...deleting tax breaks for alternative energy start ups and poo-pooing the whole theory that alternative forms, excluding Nuke, are a good , viable source of energy. ....As we continue our march to the 12th century and 4th World status....

    • 7 months ago
  • alexandrekBack
  • bailey78
  • youngdebater
  • Des_Akkari
    • -1
      Des_Akkari  

    • I KNEW I KNEW IT..... there has been story after story of 12 year old kids figuring out how do this in their garage.....and the next story is how Exxon says they cannot scale it to work. Our Stooge in Chief of course agrees with everything his pay master tells him them gives them billions more to help their already super profitable biz of drilling miles deep rather then even try to do something just like this. Can anyone else smell the stench of CORRUPTION in the USA......it freaking wreaks everytime an elected official opens their mouth faking their concern for NYC while taking bribes from Exxon. The people who died in that storm should be considered murder to every petro company and elected official of the last 20 years....at least manslaughter.

    • 7 months ago
  • Vierotchka
  • Vierotchka
  • artemis6
  • Vierotchka

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