Import Garbage???

This morning’s news item in the paper caught my attention. It read: “Sweden runs out of garbage, imports from other countries”!  It has a state of art recycling plant which runs on garbage.Oh! Wow!!! I couldn’t believe what I read.!!!

The article went on to elaborate that:

  • Sweden sources almost half of its electricity from renewables.
  • Less than one percent of its household waste has been sent to landfill last year.
  • The national cohesive recycling policy ensures that the energy generated from burning of waste goes into a national heating network to heat homes through the extreme cold winters.

In the present day due to reckless attitude of man in the name of development, we are playing havoc with the balance of the environment.  Conferences around the world highlight the threat of global warming. The alarming trends of the polar ice caps melting at rapid pace, drastic changes in temperature, isolated rainfall during monsoon, indiscriminate felling of trees keep making it to the headlines.

Here the landfills are rising at dangerous proportions, giving out toxic fumes. This has an alarming effect on the health of the people living in its close vicinity. The many initiatives such as Swacchh Bharat, waste segregation, ban on plastic bags have all lost their fizz after the initial gusto with which they were launched.

With the amount of garbage generated in our country, I am sure we can have a perennial supply of recyclables to run such sophisticated plants. I am sure if India and many more countries adopt this novel and innovative approach, our environmental concerns can be tackled to a large extent.

 

IC: http://www.google.com

 

 

 

 

52 thoughts on “Import Garbage???”

  1. Thank you for sharing this useful info, Radhika! This one is indeed news to me. What a wonderful idea to send off less than 1% waste to the landfill and then utilize the generated waste to produce energy! Hope the word spreads and more countries, India in particular, channelizes its efforts into more Earth-friendly initiatives.

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  2. This is probably the best waste treatment thing I’ve heard till date. Considering the garbage that is created worldwide every single day, if something like is implemented with a collaborative effort from all countries we will never face any energy crisis.

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  4. It is irrefutably the need of the hour. I was stunned to read that a nation could actually fall short of garbage. But no kidding! It’s some real thinking gone into execution which we must definitely adopt. Thank you for bringing the snippet to us. Radhika. 🙂

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    1. Absolutely Asha. It took some time for me also to accept that there could be a nation which has resolved their waste problem so well. I just wanted to share this great piece of information with a larger number. Thanks for your views on this.

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  6. Thought Provoking Article… One Solution as I see it … is to bring in complete transparency in the way the local governing authorities function across states… But it’s easier said than done

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      1. I agree on that. That’s the reason we are lagging behind. Every episode of sataymev was an eye opener if authorities would have tried to learn something from it. But then who cares? All they want is to fill their pockets.

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  14. I didn’t know about this approach, Radhika (maybe because I have lost track of keeping track of news :p ). I hope we learn something from Sweden and use this technique. ‘Will it be effective or not?’is a secondary thing, but first let us apply it.

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  16. Yes!! So true. The Environmental pollution has already reached alarming levels yet the meetings and discussions are the only approaches being made and ironically, most of the times the meetings are held in Large Air-conditioned Auditoriums, which itself is one of the major contributors of Pollution. 😑

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  20. Sweden has always been very clean. Almost all streams have drinkable water and you are brought up with the notion to keep it that way. Every kid in Sweden have the experience of dropping a candy paper on the ground and some old lady taps your shoulder and looks upset; “Pick it up young friend!” I’ve turned the same. I’m not surprised we’re out of garbage. 🙂

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  22. I had read about this and exactly same thought had occurred to me. I wish India could make the best use of technology and get inspired by the way other countries are dealing with such critical issues.

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