Trash for cash! | Vital Football

Trash for cash!

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Sweden to import 800,000 tonnes of trash to burn for energy.

Currently, 20 percent of Sweden's heat supply is produced by incinerating garbage -- that's 810,000 homes -- with the remaining energy providing 250,000 homes with electricity. To make up for the lack of litter generated by its diligent citizens (the country's plants can process two million tonnes of household waste), Sweden will mainly be importing trash from Norway. Not only will Norway be paying Sweden to destroy its waste, the only thing it will get back in return will be a pile of ash, rich with heavy metals and harmful dioxins that will need to be deposited in landfills. Despite this added burden, it is still the most economical way for Norway to dispose of its household waste.

Sweden is ahead of the curve when it comes to meeting the EU's 2020 sustainability directives, and well ahead of other nations when it comes to its waste-to-energy plan. According to a Eurostat report, municipal waste in Sweden was landfilled at a rate of seven kilograms per inhabitant in 2009 -- compare this to figures for the UK, a hefty 260kg per inhabitant. Conversely, Sweden incinerates 235kg of municipal waste per person, and the UK, just nine kilograms. Countries like Estonia, Greece, Romania and Turkey still do not operate any waste-to-energy plants, and could present future partnerships for Sweden.

Incineration has also become far greener since the 80s in Sweden, when limits on emissions were tightened. According to a report released by the country's waste management association, Avfall Sverige, since that time incineration emission levels have dropped by between 90 and 99 percent because of better waste sorting technologies.

Byproducts of incineration include ash and flue gases, which both contain harmful substances like dioxin. These are now largely cleaned out, however. Dust is passed through an electrostatic precipitator to give the particles a negative electric charge. These are then attracted to positively charged metal plates, shaken off, collected and taken to an ash silo. The gases are washed out with water that contains lime -- this reacts with the gases and removes them. This is done several times to remove different things -- first heavy metals, then acids, sulphur dioxide and the remainder. Finally, a catalytic convertor removes nitrous oxides by passing the remaining flue gases through a porous material and converting them to nitrogen. The idea is that mainly carbon dioxide and water are released and, under the terms with Norway, anything else will be deposited in landfills.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-10/29/sweden-imports-garbage-for-energy/viewgallery/291667
 
An enlightening and interesting read.

Thanks for that Green Tea.... or should that be "Environmentally Friendly Tea"...Lol
 
We do it here but nowhere near on the scale that Sweden do. Tons of waste are emptied into landfill sites every year, yet Sweden cant get enough of the stuff.
 
Just mad that it isn't already a major way of dealing with waste isn't it?

They've talked about it for years but as usual, no real action.
 
Indeed, that is an idea, save the hot air in the house of commons and hey presto, no need for nuclear power stations.
 
They say alot of our recycling material now goes abroad. I wonder if any of it goes to Sweden