Wouldn’t it be great if no household waste was wasted? If each and every item of refuse was turned into something else – new products, raw materials, gas or at least heat?
Sweden is reaching that stage. More than 99% of all household waste is recycle in some way or another which means that Sweden has taken up some strict measures to achieve this goal. Sweden, as a country has gone through a recycling revolution in the last decades, considering that only 38 per cent of household waste was recycled in 1975. Today, recycling stations are as a rule no more than 300 metres from any residential area. Most Swedes separate all recyclable waste in their homes and deposit it in special containers in their block of flats or drop it off at a recycling station.
Isn’t it interesting Sweden is a home country for many well known companies such as H&M, Spotify, Skype AstraZenece etc and still manages to take measures on keeping the environment clean and green?
Sweden has set an example for many other countries to take up the method of recycling and ensuring that most of the house hold waste in recycled. Weine Wiqvist, CEO of the Swedish Waste Management and Recycling Association shares ways to ensure that there is zero waste. “Newspapers are turned into paper mass, bottles are reused or melted into new items, plastic containers become plastic raw material; food is composted and becomes soil or biogas through a complex chemical process. Rubbish trucks are often run on recycled electricity or biogas. Wasted water is purified to the extent of being potable. Special rubbish trucks go around cities and pick up electronics and hazardous waste such as chemicals. Pharmacists accept leftover medicine. Swedes take their larger waste, such as a used TV or broken furniture, to recycling centres on the outskirts of the cities.”
To conclude, less than 1% of Swedish house waste was sent to landline after the year 2011. We, as individuals should help Canada be a zero waste country.
For further information and detail, please link the following
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/sweden-s-recycling-is-so-revolutionary-the-country-has-run-out-of-rubbish-a7462976.html
Ellie
October 14, 2017 — 3:20 pm
It always amazes me how much waste each person produces in such a short period of time. While Canada has a relatively better recycling disposable system than other countries (Singapore, for example, has no recycling facilities unless you drive out of the city and hunt them down), there is still a lot we can be doing. Sweden has always been an interesting case study on what most nations should be trying to replicate in a lot of aspects of society, and now sustainability as well. The statistic about each recycling bin being at most 300 meters away from any household surprises me knowing how vast and spread out Sweden is in some areas, but it makes me optimistic that Canada can replicate this and move towards becoming a zero waste country.
TessDavies
October 19, 2017 — 9:00 pm
Hi Pavani,
It is true Sweden is doing many great things – they even have a mall that opened recently that only sells recycled products (see the link below). It would be wonderful if Canada had similar systems – there always has to be give and take though, these programs are supported by Sweden high tax rates and are coming at a huge energy cost – not a reason to stop, just things to consider when it comes to finding our own solutions.
Your post was well researched and well written, I am looking forward to reading more of them – I would caution you on time though, we are halfway through the semester and you have 7 posts to go. Perhaps time to buckle down and get posting. To make your posts even better in the future consider adding photos and hyperlinks right into the text. Looking forward to reading more.
Happy posting,
Tess
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/sweden-opens-worlds-first-mall-repaired-recycled-goods/