Recycling
and renewable energy are big in Sweden. More than 99% of household
waste was reportedly recycled last year and half of the country’s
electricity and heating coming from renewable energy.
The director of communications for the Swedish Waste Management’s recycling association,
Anna-Carin Gripwall
was quoted as saying: “In the southern part of Europe they don’t make
use of the heating from the waste, it just goes out the chimney. Here we
use it as a substitute for fossil fuel.”
According to the Interesting Engineering site, the term “recycling”
in Sweden also includes the burning of about 50% of waste to make heat
and energy. In other countries like the United States, this is described
as “transformation”.
Nevertheless, Sweden’s reported success rate even brings in 700,000
tonnes of imported waste from other countries. The import rate comes as a
result from a landfill ban in EU countries. Rather than paying the fine
and recycling the waste in its home countries, people simply ship it to
Sweden.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/sweden-missing-trash/