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Sinned wrote on 2012-10-30 01:29
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/10/28/163823839/sweden-wants-your-trash
Move over Abba, Sweden has found new fame. The small Nordic country is breaking records — in waste. Sweden's program of generating energy from garbage is wildly successful, but recently its success has also generated a surprising issue: There is simply not enough trash.
Only 4 percent of Swedish garbage ends up in a landfill, according to Swedish Waste Management. Due to its efficiency in converting waste to renewable energy, Sweden has recently begun importing around 800,000 tons of trash annually from other countries.
Norway is now paying Sweden to take its garbage. Swedish sights are also set on Bulgaria, Romania and Italy as future trash exporters, as Catarina Ostlund, a senior advisor for the country's environmental protection agency, told PRI. Those countries rely heavily on landfills – a highly inefficient and environmentally degrading system.
Sweden is leading the way in waste management, but it is one of few. We live in a world where nearly 70 percent of deep sea Arctic creatures are in contact with human trash like plastic bags and beer bottles. In the United States, where the EPA says 250 million tons of trash was generated in 2010 alone, only about 34 percent was recycled.
Sweden creates energy for around 250,000 homes and powers one-fifth of the district heating system, Swedish Waste Managements says. Its incineration plants offer a look into the future where countries could potentially make money off of their trash — and not just dump it in the ocean or bury it in mass landfills.
"I would say maybe in the future, this waste will be valued even more," Ostlund said. "So maybe you could sell your waste, because there will be a shortage of resources within the world."
Leave it to the Scandinavians to make even trash chic.
Not bad... not bad...
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TLCBonaparte wrote on 2012-10-30 01:51
That country deserve all my respect.
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Rin wrote on 2012-10-30 01:54
So the future that is Wall-E won't happen?
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BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2012-10-30 02:09
the united states should take this offer
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TLCBonaparte wrote on 2012-10-30 02:33
China should take this offer too.
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Chillax wrote on 2012-10-30 02:41
Should be good as long as they control emissions. They should look into scavenging the Trash Gyre for waste as well.
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Enhalo wrote on 2012-10-30 20:14
Fascinating! Does anyone have any idea how this process works? References?
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RealityBreak wrote on 2012-10-30 20:23
I'm wondering how they do it...
Best thing I can think of is just throwing everything into a giant power plant furnace and oxidizing it all.
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Sumpfkraut wrote on 2012-10-30 21:44
Well it's probably way more complicated than that.
I guess somewhere on this level, or even more. They should make a graph of it.
[SPOILER="Spoiler"]
[Image: http://puu.sh/1kCSp]
[/SPOILER]
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RealityBreak wrote on 2012-10-30 21:51
Quote from Sumpfkraut;972489:
Well it's probably way more complicated than that.
I guess somewhere on this level, or even more. They should make a graph of it.
[SPOILER="Spoiler"][Image: http://puu.sh/1kCSp]
[/SPOILER]
I'm sure they have a CAD design of it; but of course, that's probably worth money and kept far far away from the internet.
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TLCBonaparte wrote on 2012-10-30 23:18
I am waiting for molecular reconstructor.
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Enhalo wrote on 2012-10-31 08:41
Quote from RealityBreak;972456:
I'm wondering how they do it...
Best thing I can think of is just throwing everything into a giant power plant furnace and oxidizing it all.
That would merely input energy into the system and leave you with a pile of radical compounds at the end of the day.
Quote from TLCBonaparte;972536:
I am waiting for molecular reconstructor.
Never will happen.
Ever.
Enzymes are the closest thing we have to what you're suggesting and those cannot be "farmed" nor used with any type of fidelity outside of the desired substrate to product transformation.