Sweden recycles 99% of all waste and needs to import it to feed the waste-to-energy plants - Polidicks

[media]http://vimeo.com/103801887[/media] [quote] 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 Scandinavian country has become so good at managing waste, they have to import garbage from the UK, Italy, Norway and Ireland to feed the country’s 32 waste-to-energy (WTE) plants, a practice that has been in place for years. “A good number to remember is that three tons of waste contains as much energy as one ton of fuel oil … so there is a lot of energy in waste,” said Göran Skoglund, spokesperson for Öresundskraft, one of the country’s leading energy companies. Before garbage can be trucked away to incinerator plants, trash is filtered by home and business owners; organic waste is separated, paper picked from recycling bins, and any objects that can be salvaged and reused pulled aside. By Swedish law, producers are responsible for handling all costs related to collection and recycling or disposal of their products. If a beverage company sells bottles of pop at stores, the financial onus is on them to pay for bottle collection as well as related recycling or disposal costs. According to data collected from Swedish recycling company Returpack, Swedes collectively return 1.5 billion bottles and cans annually. What can't be reused or recycled usually heads to WTE incineration plants. “Starting in the ‘70s, Sweden adopted fairly strict rules and regulations when it comes to handling our waste, both for households and more municipalities and companies,” Gripwell told HuffPost Canada, referring to the country’s “waste hierarchy” now ingrained in Swedish society. “People rarely question the ‘work’ they have to do,” she said. [/quote] [url]http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/09/02/sweden-recycling_n_5738602.html[/url]

And here I am surrounded by lovely hills and mountains containing trash. It's ok because they'll eventually turn them into "parks" so children and their families can run around on all of the plastic we've dumped into the ground.

Everything to "stay green". But I wonder how green the actual transporting of all that sh!t we import is.

[QUOTE=Coridan;45891922]And here I am surrounded by lovely hills and mountains containing trash. It's ok because they'll eventually turn them into "parks" so children and their families can run around on all of the plastic we've dumped into the ground.[/QUOTE] Ehj here in the u.s. we have two problems, 1) our trash is privately run 2) uber crazy nutjobs that want to remove every protection of law and be able to dump toxic sludge in children's parks

Quick, make more waste!

The only issue I have with waste incineration is that there's a risk of putting dioxins into the air when it's not done properly, which means the surrounding land gets poisoned and unusable for farming.

[QUOTE=maurits150;45891999]The only issue I have with waste incineration is that there's a risk of putting dioxins into the air when it's not done properly, which means the surrounding land gets poisoned and unusable for farming.[/QUOTE] they take care of that and are below half of the allowed values

Would you like to buy some from US? We've got plenty. We could sell it super cheap too.

[QUOTE=Hellsten;45891926]Everything to "stay green". But I wonder how green the actual transporting of all that sh!t we import is.[/QUOTE] Regular transport trucks I'd assume. This isn't nuclear waste they're dealing with.

[QUOTE=TheNerdPest14;45892072]Would you like to buy some from US? We've got plenty. We could sell it super cheap too.[/QUOTE] Get this shit: We have a wind turbine farm about 40 minutes from where I reside and we got 0 power from it. The company moves the energy to more southern states. Why? Because no one here wants to pay for the turbines. Stupid. Just stupid.

The video is really interesting (though it's not exactly news as I remember the same story a few years back) I wonder if any of my rubbish has ended up in Sweden

Here in the United States, we've managed to get our landfills down to a science (when run municipally and following all of the rules). That being said, we also have to deal with something absolutely horrific. I've got two words for everybody: [b]superfund sites[/b].

[QUOTE=Electrocuter;45892086]Regular transport trucks I'd assume. This isn't nuclear waste they're dealing with.[/QUOTE] Doesn't need to be specifically nuclear waste to have long term effects. There's plenty of other waste which can be toxic for soil that can last many years.

[QUOTE=Hellsten;45891926]Everything to "stay green". But I wonder how green the actual transporting of all that sh!t we import is.[/QUOTE] All garbage trucks in the country run on biogas IIRC, which they get from the trash. So it's perfectly fine.

[QUOTE=Tasm;45895688]Doesn't need to be specifically nuclear waste to have long term effects. There's plenty of other waste which can be toxic for soil that can last many years.[/QUOTE] Because im not a swede I have no idea if this is true or not, but I would think they would have it so that stuff toxic to burn wouldn't be produced. In other words, maybe they make all of their disposable things out of burnable material.

You might think sweden is all clean and shit, but if you have ever taken advantage of Allemansrätten™ you would quickly find all sorts of plastic bottles and bags

[QUOTE=Coridan;45891922]And here I am surrounded by lovely hills and mountains containing trash. It's ok because they'll eventually turn them into "parks" so children and their families can run around on all of the plastic we've dumped into the ground.[/QUOTE] On the plus side they'll eventually mine that to get all the metals (especially aluminium) out and then you'll have holes instead of hills.

Are they purchasing garbage with profit? Because I heard some countries like Japan export their garbage to developing countries with negative profit, ie. the developing country receives money for importing the garbage.

Need to be wary. Import too much while your population's growing, and eventually you'll need to pay to [b]export[/b] your garbage. Source: I played Simcity 3000.

Is there a reason other countries aren't doing this?...

[QUOTE=Code3Response;45892090]Get this shit: We have a wind turbine farm about 40 minutes from where I reside and we got 0 power from it. The company moves the energy to more southern states. Why? Because no one here wants to pay for the turbines. Stupid. Just stupid.[/QUOTE] Turbines are the worst form of renewable energy but another reason for that could you be that you can't just plop one down anywhere.

[QUOTE=Bynine;45897197]Is there a reason other countries aren't doing this?...[/QUOTE] They are, just not as well.

Actually there are countries that do it just as good or even better. Some actually RECYCLE more than Sweden does. [[Thumb]https://d28wbuch0jlv7v.cloudfront.net/images/infografik/normal/chartoftheday_1312_Recycling_Remains_a_Rarity_in_Eastern_Europe_b.jpg[/thumb]

[QUOTE=Firewarrior;45897808]Actually there are countries that do it just as good or even better. Some actually RECYCLE more than Sweden does. [[Thumb]https://d28wbuch0jlv7v.cloudfront.net/images/infografik/normal/chartoftheday_1312_Recycling_Remains_a_Rarity_in_Eastern_Europe_b.jpg[/thumb][/QUOTE] Looks like Germany, Netherlands and Belgium use just as few landfills but do recycling better, neat.

[QUOTE=Firewarrior;45897808]Actually there are countries that do it just as good or even better. Some actually RECYCLE more than Sweden does. [[Thumb]https://d28wbuch0jlv7v.cloudfront.net/images/infografik/normal/chartoftheday_1312_Recycling_Remains_a_Rarity_in_Eastern_Europe_b.jpg[/thumb][/QUOTE] Wow Romania sucks lol

[QUOTE=Firewarrior;45897808]Actually there are countries that do it just as good or even better. Some actually RECYCLE more than Sweden does. [[Thumb]https://d28wbuch0jlv7v.cloudfront.net/images/infografik/normal/chartoftheday_1312_Recycling_Remains_a_Rarity_in_Eastern_Europe_b.jpg[/thumb][/QUOTE] Compared to the amount of garbage sorting I had to do when I was there, Italy is doing terrible. Denmark could do a bit better as well. [editline]5th September 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Trogdon;45898812]Wow Romania sucks lol[/QUOTE] Really, I'd say most of those countries suck. At least Romania isn't a try-hard I suppose?

[QUOTE=Sableye;45891951]Ehj here in the u.s. we have two problems, 1) our trash is privately run 2) uber crazy nutjobs that want to remove every protection of law and be able to dump toxic sludge in children's parks[/QUOTE] and it is not perhaps slightly nutty to think that other crazy nutjobs want to dump toxic sludge in [i]children's[/i] parks?

[video=youtube;rExEVZlQia4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rExEVZlQia4[/video] This is what I think of every time someone says something about recycling. Edit: I'm dumb and don't know how to put videos in not link form, sorry.

[QUOTE=Drsalvador;45896750]Need to be wary. Import too much while your population's growing, and eventually you'll need to pay to [b]export[/b] your garbage. Source: I played Simcity 3000.[/QUOTE] If you zone enough landfill, you'll be able to eventually turn most of that disgusting shit into energy and also recycle a lot of it if need be. Bam!

[QUOTE=Firewarrior;45897808]Actually there are countries that do it just as good or even better. Some actually RECYCLE more than Sweden does. [[Thumb]https://d28wbuch0jlv7v.cloudfront.net/images/infografik/normal/chartoftheday_1312_Recycling_Remains_a_Rarity_in_Eastern_Europe_b.jpg[/thumb][/QUOTE] Wow, I'd have expected the UK to be better. Still, props to the countries recycling/incinerating. Romania needs to catch the fuck up