What would it be like if there were no more landfills because we used all the waste as fuel? Well that's the situation Sweden now finds itself in. The country is a recycling nirvana and it sends less than five percent of all waste to landfills. On top of that amazing achievement, Sweden uses the landfill waste to create heat and electricity as part of its "waste to energy" incineration scheme. And there's the issue; with Swedes being super efficient in recycling, the country has run out of landfill waste to generate electricity.Sweden has now resorted to importing waste from its Scandinavian neighbor, Norway, to use as fuel in its incineration plants. The Norwegian government pays the Swedes to take the waste, burn it, and then return the toxic ashes back to Norway, where they are buried in landfills. Good deal for Sweden, and a good deal for Norway. Sweden is looking for less environmentally friendly European countries to import waste from so they can help those countries from burying their waste in landfills.
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I lived in Sweden many years ago and it was very good at recycling then. I thought that Germany would be the best at recycling as they so many laws.
Thanks for the info Martin. This is a great story, but of course the mainstream media is totally absorbed by the presidential stuff, even so I imagine that no one would actually report this, unless a reality TV star recycled a bottle or something.
This is an amazing thing the Sweden has been able to do and they can further impress us by taking waste from other European states to make more fuel. Way to do Swedes.
I mean you have you have to love Sweden that is a real feat that the US will NEVER be able to achieve….the best we can do is to recycle a few plastic bottles and pat ourselves on the back…