How Sweden Plans To Turn The World's Trash Into Cash!

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At a time when most countries are struggling to figure out where to dump all the trash that is generated on a daily basis, Sweden is turning the other cheek - They want more trash. In fact so badly that they plan to import 800,000 tons of it from other countries. Intrigued? Read on . . .

In the 1940's, when most of the world had never even considered building a recycling plant, this progressive country began a program to incinerate their garbage and turn it into energy. While this initially released harmful toxins into the atmosphere, over the years, the country has perfected the technique so much that these have now been reduced to minuscule levels!

Meanwhile, the energy produced by these plants has steadily increased so that today, it generates enough energy to provide heat to about 20% or 810,000 Swedish households and electricity to 250,000. And, it gets better.

Thanks to intense public awareness messages, strict laws and an amazingly conscientious population, only 4% of all Swedish trash ends up in a landfill. In contrast 63% of the trash generated in the USA ends up in landfills!

However all this 'greenness' has resulted in a rather unique problem. While its incinerator plants have the capacity to process up to 2 million tons of household trash each year, it doesn't not enough raw material! Hence, the decision to import other people's trash - Something that is definitely not in short supply anywhere else in the world.

Neighboring Norway has already begun sending their garbage, while Bulgaria, Romania and Italy are seriously considering the proposition too. All in all, Sweden expects to import 800,000 tons each year. They are of course charging heftily for this 'import' - But we somehow think there will not be much haggling over the cost!

Now, if only all the countries could line up to learn how the Swedes were able to do what none of us can or really want to do, innocent marine animals would not have to deal with our plastic bags, bottles and everything else we dump in the oceans.

Resources: wired.co.uk, inhabitat.com, npr.org.

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418 Comments
  • starwarsmaniacover 12 years
    this is super cool but don't humiliate the u.s.
    • helloover 12 years
      this is crazy
      • LiamPayneLuverover 12 years
        i disagree with swirlylollipops. first of all who likes lollipops these days and sencond of all i think this is a great idea! :3
        • theplayer
          theplayerover 12 years
          but still its good to recycle
          • theplayer
            theplayerover 12 years
            so if we recyicle we can make money and no more landfills
            • jiyoon2446
              jiyoon2446over 12 years
              I will learn this at school in social studies class a few weeks later. But I won't throw the trashes anywhere and recycle as much as I can.
              • watevsover 12 years
                pretty cool. should i do a social studies project on it?
                • jessiej2002
                  jessiej2002over 12 years
                  OMG
                  • SOMEONEover 12 years
                    wait,so are they turning it into actual cash?
                    • Ferociraptorover 12 years
                      It actually makes sense when you read it.