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Rhiannon12866

(203,041 posts)
Sun Oct 28, 2012, 02:52 AM Oct 2012

Sweden runs out of garbage, forced to import from Norway


Photo: Smath/Flickr

Sweden, a recycling-happy land where a quarter of a million homes are powered by the incineration of waste, is facing a unique dilemma: The nation has run out of much-needed fuel.

Sweden, birthplace of the Smörgåsbord, Eric Northman, and the world’s preferred solar-powered purveyor of flat-pack home furnishings, is in a bit of a pickle: the squeaky clean Scandinavian nation of more than 9.5 million has run out of garbage. The landfills have been tapped dry; the rubbish reserves depleted. And although this may seem like a positive — even enviable — predicament for a country to be facing, Sweden has been forced to import trash from neighboring countries, namely Norway. Yep, Sweden is so trash-strapped that officials are shipping it in — 80,000 tons of refuse annually, to be exact — from elsewhere.

You see, Swedes are big on recycling. So big in fact that only 4 percent of all waste generated in the country is landfilled.

Good for them! However, the population's remarkably pertinacious recycling habits are also a bit of a problem given that the country relies on waste to heat and to provide electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes through a longstanding waste-to-energy incineration program. So with citizens simply not generating enough burnable waste to power the incinerators, the country has been forced to look elsewhere for fuel. Says Catarina Ostlund, a senior advisor for the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency: “We have more capacity than the production of waste in Sweden and that is usable for incineration.”

http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/recycling/blogs/sweden-runs-out-of-garbage-forced-to-import-from-norway
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Sweden runs out of garbage, forced to import from Norway (Original Post) Rhiannon12866 Oct 2012 OP
Holy crap, only 4 percent of waste is landfilled! Curmudgeoness Oct 2012 #1
I think that we should take a lesson from Sweden or else consider exporting! Rhiannon12866 Oct 2012 #2
Sounds like a plan! nt MADem Nov 2012 #3

Curmudgeoness

(18,219 posts)
1. Holy crap, only 4 percent of waste is landfilled!
Sun Oct 28, 2012, 01:49 PM
Oct 2012

If this country to get to ten times that amount, we would be patting ourselves on the back.

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