[dropcap]Y[/dropcap]ou rarely hear about a country having too little garbage, but that is a real issue Sweden is facing right now. The recycling plants in Sweden are so effective that they burn through the garbage too fast, forcing Sweden to import garbage from other countries so that we can keep the plants up and running. Therefore, Sweden currently imports 700,000 tons of waste from other countries. By recycling and composting so much of our garbage, only 1 percent ends up in landfills, which keeps Swedish forests and waters free of pollution. How has Sweden become so good at recycling and what do we do with all the waste we recycle?
Garbage is generally seen as a problem that ends up creating massive landfills and polluting oceans, but in Sweden garbage is seen more as a solution. By incinerating garbage in our state of the art recycling plants and using the gas and steam created to generate energy that is then used to heat up 810,000 households (17% of all the households in Sweden) and to provide electricity for 250,000 homes, Sweden creates sustainable energy and stops garbage from ending up in nature. This is a perfect arrangement for Sweden since countries like Norway pay us to take their garbage, which we then use to heat up houses, and then we send the small amounts of toxic byproducts that are generated back to Norway where they deal with it. Only a small amount of toxic waste is created in the recycling process, heavy metal emissions having been reduced by 99% since 1985, even though Sweden emits three times more waste today.
In case you aren’t aware of what Swedish weather is like, it is pretty cold; therefore, during the winter it is absolutely necessary for Sweden to have garbage that we can use to heat up houses, or people would freeze. That is why we are so keen on taking excess garbage from Norway, England, and Ireland.
Swedish people aren’t born with “recycle or die” tote bags in one hand and reusable water bottles in the other, so what is it that makes us so good at recycling?
One of the main reasons that Swedes recycle so much is because it’s incredibly easy to do so, which means you don’t have an excuse not to do it as well. At every supermarket, you can recycle bottles and cans in exchange for money. If you want to recycle paper, glass or plastic you generally don’t have to walk more than 300 meters (984 ft) since recycling stations are generally located no further than that from any residential area.
Moreover, most houses, like mine, for example, have two separate garbage tins. One for burnable garbage and one for food waste, so that when the garbage trucks (that often run on biogas made from compost or recycled electricity) come and pick up the trash, they can easily separate the trash; compost the food waste and recycle the burnable trash.
Money is also a powerful motivator, and the Swedish government recognizes that. It’s why they add a small extra fee of about 1 or 2 Kronor (10-20 cents) when you purchase plastic bottles, cans and glass bottles, that you can get back when you recycle them. Since the recycling stations are located in grocery stores, a place that people already go to in their day-to-day life, it’s easy just to save the bottles and cans that you buy and recycle them before you go grocery shopping. You can then use the money you get from recycling to either pay for the food or simply take it out in cash. 1 or 2 kronor might not sound like a lot, but if you were to recycle all the bottles and cans that you buy every year, it adds up. Yes, you are getting your own money back, so it might not seem like you are gaining that much, but if you didn’t recycle, you would be paying extra money every time you buy a bottle or can.
A new word has even been made up for recycling bottles and cans, and that is the verb to “Panta”. The organization that promotes recycling is called “Pantamera”, which also happens to be their slogan, and translates to “Recyclemore.” Every week, a new video commercial is released and if you want to, you can view them all here. Ever since I was a kid, I can remember seeing commercials full of color, famous people and catchy jingles telling me to “Pantamera”, constantly reminding me and others to recycle our empty bottles and cans. Since there is so much information out there and recycling is thought to kids at such a young age, combined with how easy it is to find a “Pantstation”, it has become a part of most Swedish people’s lives.
In some grocery stores, you can also choose to donate the money that you get from recycling instead of taking it for yourself. In 2015 6,7 million kronor (731,036 dollars or 686,806 Euro) was donated and used to plant 355,000 trees in East Africa. This might not sound like that much money, but you have to remember that Sweden’s total population is just 9.6 million (2013 census).
Even though Sweden recycles 99% of its household waste, it doesn’t mean that we are satisfied, and we actually want to become even better at recycling. Right now, about half of the household garbage is burnt, and turned into energy that can be used to heat houses, which is great, and definitely a lot better than throwing the garbage in a landfill, but Weine Wiqvist, CEO of the Swedish Waste Management and Recycling Association (Avfall Sverige) isn’t satisfied. He and Avfall Sverige, which translates to ‘Waste Sweden’ are currently working on ways to reuse the garbage rather than turning the garbage into energy. Avfall Sverige want to do this since reusing materials, or products means using less energy to create a product, than burning one and making another from scratch. Consequently making Sweden’s recycling even more efficient and effective.
‘We are trying to “move up the refuse ladder,” as we say, from burning to material recycling, by promoting recycling and working with authorities’ – Weine Wiqvist, CEO of the Swedish Waste Management and Recycling Association
The key to Sweden’s recycling success is that we always strive to be better and that we understand what motivates people to recycle. By adding money incentives, by making it as easy as possible and by using ad campaigns to constantly remind people to recycle, the government really has succeeded in getting the Swedish people to recycle more. Since the first incineration plant was built in 1904, Sweden has consistently continued to develop and upgrade them so that they are as energy efficient as possible, and also to make sure that no dangerous gases or byproducts leak out and get to nature.
By always modernizing our recycling plants, we have become so good and efficient that we now import other countries’ garage, which is great, especially for us. However, it would be better if more countries became better at recycling, so that we could restrict the amount of garbage that ends up in oceans and nature, while also providing sustainable electricity and heating to millions of people and creating thousands of new jobs.
In conclusion, minimizing waste is an important aspect of fighting climate change, and while many countries realize this and have begun recycling and reusing more trash, we can all do better. Saving our planet doesn’t need to be difficult, all we have to do is “Pantamera”.
