Sweden Recycling 99 Percent Of Garbage, Edging Closer To 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 in landfills Ends Up 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 . 

"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.

Every year, the average Swede produces 461 kilograms of waste, a figure that's slightly below the half-ton European average. But what makes Sweden different is its use of a somewhat controversial program incinerating over two million tons of trash per year.

It's also a process responsible for converting half the country's garbage into energy.

"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.

Good business for Energy is for garbage Importing Sweden From Sweden On Vimeo .    

At the core of Sweden's program is its waste-management hierarchy designed to curb environmental harm: prevention (reduce), reuse, recycling, recycling alternatives (energy recovery via WTE plants), and lastly, disposal (landfill).

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.

Rules introduced in The 1990s incentivized companies to more Take A Proactive, role eco-Conscious About to Take What They Market products. It was also a clever way to alleviate taxpayers of full waste management costs.

From Collected data according to Swedish Recycling Company Returpack , Swedes collectively return bottles and Cans 1.5 billion annually. What can not be reused or recycled usually heads to WTE incineration plants. Would not it be great if no household waste was wasted? If each and every item of refuse was turned into something else - new products, raw materials, gas or at least heat?

Sweden is almost there. More than 99 per cent of all household waste is recycled in one way or another. This means A Recycling Revolution in The Last of The Country That Has Something decades gone through, considering only 38 per cent of waste was recycled in 1975. Sweden Already Imports Household That roughly 800,000 tonnes of garbage per Year From The UK, Italy, Norway, and Ireland to generate Electricity and Heating for The Country's 32 waste-to-Energy (wte) plants .

   

Today, Recycling stations Are NO more Than 300 meters Residential Area From any drop-offs can make Swedes So Their own.  

Environmental benefits in addition to, Has Plenty of fiscal Incentives Recycling also, says communications director Anna-Carin Gripwell Swedish Waste Management, in An Interview with The Huffington Post . Already Has A COMMODITY become garbage, and it Someday May be fuel for power generation plants AS Common Practice to purchase waste and Vehicles. Inh Wiqvist, CEO of Waste Management and Recycling Association The Swedish Swedes can still thinks Do more, considering About Half of That all household waste is burnt, that is, turned into energy. That explains he means reusing materials or products using Less Energy to Create A product, and Making Another One From Scratch Than burning. 'We Are Trying to "move Up The refuse ladder", AS WE say, to burning From Material Recycling, by promoting recycling and working with authorities', he says. 

Meanwhile, Swedish households keep separating their newspapers, plastic, metal, glass, electric appliances, light bulbs and batteries. Many municipalities also encourage consumers to separate food waste. And all of this is reused, recycled or composted.

Newspapers are turned into paper mass, bottles are reused or melted into new items, plastic containers become plastic raw material; food is composted and becomes soil or biogas through a complex chemical process. Rubbish trucks are often run on recycled electricity or biogas. Wasted water is purified to the extent of being potable. Special rubbish trucks go around cities and pick up electronics and hazardous waste such as chemicals. Pharmacists accept leftover medicine. Swedes take their larger waste, such as a used TV or broken furniture, to recycling centres on the outskirts of the cities. 

Corporations are also held accountable to encourage and enable recycling for the public. Producers are required by Swedish law to handle all costs relevant to the collection, recycling, or appropriate disposal of their products. So if A is BEVERAGE Sold in bottles, On The Producer of The Financial responsibility is for Pay all costs to product Related to The Bottle Recycling or Disposal. Trash-burning Facilities in The United States only US HANDLE A small Portion of waste , and Most Up The Ends of burned trash in landfills, according to The New York Times .

  

Just One Example of in US waste, Half of Americans nearly Their Throw away food , Costing roughly $ 165 billion per Year, according to Natural Resources Defense Council by The A Recent Study. Each of Us Can Promote Sustainability Each of us can and Promote Sustainability justice at multiple levels: as an individual, as a teacher or parent, a community member, a national citizen, and as a global citizen. As Annie says in the film, "the good thing about such an all pervasive problem is that there are so many points of intervention." That means that there are lots and lots of places to plug in, to get involved, and to make a difference. There is no single simple thing to do, because the set of problems we're addressing just is not simple. But everyone can make a difference, but the bigger your action the bigger the difference you'll make. Here are some ideas: 

1. Power down!   A Great deal of The Create and use resources in The Energy consume WE WE WE The waste is. Look for opportunities in your life to significantly reduce energy use: drive less, fly less, turn off lights, buy local seasonal food (food takes energy to grow, package, store and transport), wear a sweater instead of turning up the heat, use a clothesline instead of a dryer, vacation closer to home, buy used or borrow things before buying new, recycle. All these things save energy and save you money. And, if you can switch to alternative energy by supporting a company that sells green energy to the grid or by installing solar panels on your home, bravo!
2. Less waste.   Per capita Production in The Growing US Just keeps waste. There are hundreds of opportunities each day to nurture a Zero Waste culture in your home, school, workplace, church, community. This takes developing new habits which soon become second nature. Use both sides of the paper, carry your own mugs and shopping bags, get printer cartridges refilled instead of replaced, compost food scraps, avoid bottled water and other over packaged products, upgrade computers rather than buying new ones, repair and mend rather than replace .... the list is endless! The more we visibly engage in re-use over wasting, the more we cultivate a new cultural norm, or actually, reclaim an old one!
3. These issues About Talk to everyone.   At SCHOOL, Your neighbors, in Line at The Supermarket, bus ... A student once asked Cesar Chavez On The Organized How he. He said, "First, I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person." "No," said the student, "how do you organize?" Chavez answered, "First I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person." You get the point. Talking about these issues raises awareness, builds community and can inspire others to action.
4. Make Your Voice Heard.   Write to letters to editor and press articles to The Local. In the last two years, and especially with Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the media has been forced to write about Climate Change. As individuals, we can influence the media to better represent other important issues as well. Letters to the editor are a great way to help newspaper readers make connections they might not make without your help. Also local papers are often willing to print book and film reviews, interviews and articles by community members. Let's get the issues we care about in the news.
5. Detox Your Body, Detox Your Home, The Economy and Detox.   Many of Today's Consumer products - From Lipstick to Children's pajamas - Toxic CHEMICAL contain additives That Are Simply Not necessary. Research online (for example, http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/) before you buy to be sure you're not inadvertently introducing toxics into your home and body. Then tell your friends about toxics in consumer products. Together, ask the businesses why they're using toxic chemicals without any warning labels. And ask your elected officials why they are permitting this practice. The European Union has adopted strong policies that require toxics to be removed from many products. So, while our electronic gadgets and cosmetics have toxics in them, people in Europe can buy the same things toxics-free. Let's demand the same thing here. Getting the toxics out of production at the source is the best way to ensure they do not get into any home and body.
6. Unplug (The TV and Internet) and Plug In (The Community).   The average person over 4 hours A Day in The US Watches TV. Four hours per day filled with messages about stuff we should buy. That is four hours a day that could be spent with family, friends and in our community. On-line activism is a good start, but spending time in face-to-face civic or community activities strengthens the community and many studies show that a stronger community is a source of social and logistical support, greater security and happiness. A strong community is also critical to having a strong, active democracy.
7. When park ... and Your Car and Walk necessary MARCH!  Car-centric Land use policies and Life styles lead to more greenhouse Gas Emissions, fossil fuel Extraction, conversion of agricultural and wildlands to Roads and parking Lots. Driving less and walking more is good for the climate, the planet, your health, and your wallet. But sometimes we do not have an option to leave the car home because of inadequate bike lanes or public transportation options. Then, we may need to march, to join with others to demand sustainable transportation options. Throughout US history, peaceful non-violent marches have played a powerful role in raising awareness about issues, mobilizing people, and sending messages to decision makers. 
8. Change Your lightbulbs ... and Then, Change Your Paradigm.   Changing lightbulbs is Quick and Easy. Energy efficient lightbulbs use 75% less energy and last 10 times longer than conventional ones. That's a no-brainer. But changing lightbulbs is just tinkering at the margins of a fundamentally flawed system unless we also change our paradigm. A paradigm is a collection of assumptions, concepts, believes and values ​​that together make up a community's way of viewing reality. Our current paradigm dictates that more stuff is better, that infinite economic growth is desirable and possible, and that pollution is the price of progress. To really turn things around, we need to nurture a different paradigm based on the values ​​of sustainability, justice, health, and community.
9. Recycle Your trash ... and, Recycle Your Elected Officials.   Recycling Energy and reduces both waste and harvest and new Stuff Mine The pressure to score. Unfortunately, many cities still do not have adequate recycling systems in place. In that case you can usually find some recycling options in the phone book to start recycling while you're pressuring your local government to support recycling city-wide. Also, many products - for example, most electronics - are designed not to be recycled or contain toxics so recycling is hazardous. In these cases, we need to lobby government to prohibit toxics in consumer products and to enact Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws, as is happening in Europe. EPR is a policy which holds producers responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, so that electronics company who use toxics in their products, have to take them back. That is a great incentive for them to get the toxics out!
10. Buy Green, Buy Fair, Buy Local, Buy Used, and Most importantly, Buy Less. Shopping is Currently Not Just Because The solution to Face The Environmental Problems Are Not The real need WE WE Changes Shop for sale in Even The greenest. But, when we do shop, we should ensure our dollars support businesses that protect the environment and worker rights. Look beyond vague claims on packages like "all natural" to find hard facts. Is it organic? Is it free of super-toxic PVC plastic? When you can, buy local products from local stores, which keeps more of our hard earned money in the community. Buying used items keeps them out of the trash and avoids the upstream waste created during extraction and production. But, buying less may be the best option of all. Less pollution. Less Waste. Less time working to pay for the stuff. Sometimes, less really is more.

Sources:  
huffingtonpostca
yesmagazineorg
swedense

April McCarthy   is A JOURNALIST An Active Community role playing and analyzing world events and eco-friendly Initiatives to Advance our Health reporting.