Incinerator
Victor, our man in Stockholm, just sent me this troubling story from Swedish National Public Radio. Apparently the trash incineration biz in Sweden is outpacing waste production by Swedes. They’ve built so many new facilities that trash must now be imported from other European countries just to meet the demand to burn it up: 600,000 tons in the last year alone.
As you may recall from this book recommendation earlier this month, Sweden also exports electronic waste to Ghana—one kind of trash in, another out. Aside from burning trash not being the best for the environment, all that waste hauling must be taking up shitloads of energy. With two tips in one month, I’m upgrading Victor to Eurotipster Extraordinaire and look forward to more strange garbage news otherwise hidden from the non-Swedish-speaking world.
Photo of Japanese incinerator ripped from the Global Environment Centre Foundation.
Tags: incineration, Sweden
everydaytrash 
Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 11:46 am |
I thnik it’s outrageous for countries (and probably overhere in France we do the same) to produce waste, and then just ship it of to other countries, let them handle the bad air it will bring, burning the stuff, let them handle the cancers of handeling our stuff…and on top of all that, lets just use tons of petrol to get the waste overthere!
Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 10:20 am |
Wow, that IS strange garbage news!
Thursday, December 11, 2008 at 10:41 pm |
I believe the prototype for Sweden’s trash burning systems was equipped with a filter for the smokestack that drastically reduced it’s toxic output, to the point that it was pretty harmless. I am not sure if this technology has come into common use, but waste burning in facilities equipped with this technology is an awesome idea, and everyone should be doing it. The electronics export is a whole different story, but Swedish style trash burning should be used everywhere.
Friday, December 12, 2008 at 3:15 pm |
Interesting, thanks for the info!
Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 5:57 am |
Swedish style trash burning should be used nowhere! Because all this things burned in incineration give rise to no production which needs energy. In an ecological balance, it is a very negative result. Zero waste is the answer, with kryo- recycling and other methods:
http://www.buendnis-zukunft.de/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=174
Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 1:32 pm |
Thanks for the link, Felix.
Saturday, January 31, 2009 at 11:31 am |
[…] already noticed that the last post boasts an unfamiliar byline. Please welcome Victor Bernhardtz, eurotipster extraordinaire turned contributing editor extraoridinaire. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Victor wears many hats: […]
Saturday, January 31, 2009 at 11:43 am |
[…] already noticed that the last post boasts an unfamiliar byline. Please welcome Victor Bernhardtz, eurotipster extraordinaire turned contributing editor extraoridinaire. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Victor wears many hats: […]
Saturday, January 31, 2009 at 11:43 am |
[…] already noticed that the last post boasts an unfamiliar byline. Please welcome Victor Bernhardtz, eurotipster extraordinaire turned contributing editor extraoridinaire. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Victor wears many hats: […]
Monday, January 25, 2010 at 12:59 am |
Sweden has the cleanest air in Europe and they do an amazing job at waste management.
New York City needs to start burning the trash. A $50,000 incinerator will save tripple that in dumping costs.