[Video] Sweden Recycles 99% Of Its Garbage, Now It Imports Garbage

Many developed countries recycle waste and use it for some purpose. And Sweden is ahead of other counties in this case. The country is so efficient that it recycles 99% of its waste and reuse them.


Mountain Of Garbage

The country encourages its people to generate as little waste as possible and whatever is disposed of is either reused or recycled. Every year, the average Swedish produces 461 kilograms of waste, a figure that’s slightly below the half-ton European average. To handle the waste, the country has adopted a unique waste management system called Waste-to-energy (WTE) program.

Sweden Recycles Garbage

Each year, more than two million tonnes of trash is burnt in Sweden, which means it’s producing approximately 670,000 tonnes worth of fuel oil energy. The country has 32 WTE plants, where waste is incinerated to produce steam, which is then used to turn generator turbines and produce electricity.

Packaged Garbage Waiting For Incineration
Packaged Garbage Waiting For Incineration

Across Sweden, WTE plants provide almost one million homes with heating, and 260,000 with electricity. And the objects that can’t be incinerated safely (goods that contain porcelain, insulation, asbestos, tiles and other construction debris) are sent to landfill. This not only cuts down on the amount of waste that ends up in landfills, it also helps reduce the country’s reliance on fossil fuels.

If you are thinking that the WTE process produces filter ash and flue gas, both byproducts that contain dioxins, and environmental pollutant, then no worries. Sweden heavily regulates its WTE plants to reduce emissions and according to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the introduction of flue-glad cleaning has reduced airborne dioxins produced to “very small amounts.” Watch the video below to find out more about how Sweden uses its waste.

Swedish Waste Management and Recycling Association CEO Weine Wiqvist, has said, ““Zero waste” – that is our slogan. We would prefer less waste being generated, and that all the waste that is generated is recycled in some way. Perfection may never happen, but it certainly is a fascinating idea.” At present, Sweden imports 800,000 tons of garbage from the UK, Italy, Norway and Ireland.

Source: Sweden Sverige
Thanks To: Huffington Post Canada

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Anatol

Anatol Rahman is the Editor at TheTechJournal. He loves complicated machineries, and crazy about robot and space. He likes cycling. Before joining TheTechJournal team, he worked in the telemarketing industry. You can catch him on Google+.

This Post Has One Comment

  1. rubbishwaste

    It is very cool! To cope with 99% of the garbage in the country is a very cool indicator. Hopefully this will be a good example for other countries to do the same. The environment is very important to our children and the foundation of their health. It is very good that there are such pripers in our world.

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