Sweden's Problem

Sweden has a problem. A trash problem. But it isn't the problem you think.  They don't have enough of it. In fact they are so short on trash that they import it from neighboring Norway as well as the UK, Italy and Ireland. 800,000 tons per year worth.

Now, you ask, how and why does Sweden WANT trash for crying out loud? Well, they have been shrewd and developed a very efficient recycling program. But, you interject, a large percentage of trash can't be recycled. You would be right too. They have refined furnace technology to burn the non-recyclable parts of the trash to create heat and electricity. They burn it at such high temperatures that it destroys most contaminants so the 1% they are not able to burn or recycle is not very toxic and can be easily disposed of and in some cases used as construction material.

The energy produced provides 20% of the country's heating energy (steam heat) and enough electricity for over 250,000 homes. All that, and they get PAID to import the stuff.

Beyond the economic brilliance of this and the warm feeling my engineering heart gets at seeing something so efficient I respect the intentionality of this. They have taken what is normally (to us) the end of life for a lot of material, an economic sink if you will, and turned it into something that produces value. They have put thought to their national material flow and optimized it.

To contrast we here in the US produce about 254 million tons of trash a year. We only recycle 87 million tons of it (34.3%). The rest just gets dumped in big piles. We don't put a lot of thought or energy into making the most out of what Sweden has demonstrated is a valuable resource.

If we followed Sweden's example we would produce enough energy to provide electricity for over 15 million households.All that from something we are currently throwing away and dirtying our land with.

Aside from the fact that we should be doing that here, I want to focus back on Sweden. They have looked at their country holistically and made the decision that they want to make an intentional effort to make things work well. The trash incineration process isn't perfect. It isn't cheap. It takes time and investment. But they made the decision to spend that time and money investing into it and they are now reaping the benefits of that decision after years of slow improvement.

What areas in your life have you treated like US waste disposal (dumping it in a pile and forgetting about it)?