Importing Trash

In America, we’re number one! In many things. Some are not so good. Like garbage. Each American makes 1500 pounds of it a year. Two-thirds could be recycled, but isn’t. Most goes to landfills. Who’s number one in recycling? Sweden. Just 1% of their garbage is landfilled. In the 80s, Sweden began building a circular economy for garbage. They tasked manufacturers to devise ways to handle their packaging after it was used. And they created robust consumer recycling programs and education. Now half their waste is reused or recycled. The other half goes to incinerators. They burn that garbage to make electricity, and the hot wastewater is pumped to houses to heat them. In this way, they supply 15% of Sweden’s power and 10% of its heat. Yet, incineration isn’t perfect. It produces emissions, like CO2 and other gases. Sweden’s plants capture most of them. And to keep its incinerators running, Sweden now needs more garbage than it makes – so they import it -- from other EU countries for a fee. Then recycle some and burn the rest. Could the US reduce our garbage streams like Sweden? They’re a tiny country, a third the size of Texas. And the U.S. has different regulations in all 50 states. Still, we could do much better with recycling and economic reuse. And every year there are more programs to help us do just that.