When one nation’s waste is another’s power

KUALA LUMPUR: Most countries have problems with waste.

Sweden imports them, with countries like the United Kingdom, Norway, Ireland and Italy even paying the Scandinavian country to take their waste.

Sweden then burns the waste and turns it into electricity.

This waste-to-energy (WTE) approach could be a key model for other countries, say experts.

By turning all of that waste into energy, the Scandinavian nation is able to empty its landfills while powering homes and buildings.

According to reports, Sweden is not only saving money by replacing fossil fuel with waste to produce energy, it is generating US$100mil annually by importing trash and recycling it or turning it into power.

The country has 34 WTE plants that treat more than two million metric tonnes of waste a year.

In fact, the country has an ambitious target to generate 100% renewable energy (RE) by 2040 and achieve net zero emissions by 2045.

According to the Swedish Energy Agency, more than 90% of the renewable resources for district heating – which warms up indoor environments and supplies hot water – are produced from biomass and waste incineration as of November 2022.

Sweden also does a lot of recycling and uses hydropower for power supply.

Last month, 11 international journalists, including one from Bernama, were invited by the Internews Earth Journalism Network and Swedish Postcode Foundation to attend an energy transition workshop in Stockholm, Sweden.

While in Stockholm, the media participants were brought to Vartaverket, Stockholm Exergi’s largest combined biofuel heat and power (CHP) plant, which burns residuals from the forest product industry such as chips, branches and tops to generate energy, located at Vartahamnen harbour.

As a result of its waste management policies, Sweden generates more energy from waste than any other country in Europe.

To ensure waste from its huge forestry and pulp and paper sector as well as MSW (municipal solid waste) is incinerated and generating energy, the government imposed a landfill ban in 2002 that prohibits materials or items from being disposed of in landfills.

“Waste and residues from the forestry industry are transported to Vartaverket mainly by ships and trains,” said Stockholm Exergi’s head of research and development Dr Fabian Levihn.

“Other solid waste from households or other industries is separated into a few categories such as food waste and plastics and sent to other WTE power plants to be incinerated and turned into power,” he said.