Sweden Runs Out of Garbage

nhboy

Ubi bene ibi patria
Link to original source.

"Due to Sweden’s innovative waste-to-energy program and highly efficient recycling habits, the Scandinavian nation faces an interesting dilemma. They have run out of trash.

Sweden’s waste management and recycling programs are second to none as only four percent of the nation’s waste ends up in landfills. By contrast, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, over half of the waste produced by U.S. households ends up in landfills.

Because the Swedish manage waste so effectively and then use what remains to partly power their country, they are now living an environmentalist’s dream; a shortage of garbage."

In order to continue fueling the waste-to-energy factories that provide electricity to a quarter of a million homes and 20 percent of the entire country’s district heating, Sweden is now importing trash from the landfills of other European countries. In fact, those countries are paying Sweden to do so.

You read that correctly, countries are paying to get rid of a source of fuel they themselves produced so that Sweden can continue to have the energy output they need. You don’t have to be an economist to know that’s one highly enviable energy model.

Aside from the economic benefit, Sweden’s system of sustainability clearly has vast environmental benefits. Aside from traditional recycling programs, their waste-to-energy system ensures minimal environmental impact from the country’s waste."
 

CrashTest

Well-Known Member
Easy to do cool stuff when you're a small country with closed borders and don't have to worry about cleaning up the whole world's messes.
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
Easy to do cool stuff when you're a small country with closed borders and don't have to worry about cleaning up the whole world's messes.

Well, we already have about 80-90 waste to energy incinerators in the United States. We have three of them in Maryland, and some of them burn very cleanly. But as you said, you can DO this when you're a small country with small energy needs.

We also have a problem with regulation. We could build more, but there's a gauntlet of red tape. Seems there's always someone concerned that we ought to recycle more than burn, so stuff like this gets put on the back burner until that magical moment which never arrives.

There's nothing remarkable about this - we do the same thing. We just can't build enough incinerators.
 

b23hqb

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
Perhaps the boy can start his own program by dealing with the waste that spews forth from his own basement....
 
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