This is old news, but it is one of my favorite facts about Sweden and it is something that can be shared over and over again.
Yes, at the end of 2014, Sweden ran out of garbage and started importing it from other countries such as Norway and the UK.
Say what?!?
Yes, the Swedish recycling program is doing so well that only 1% of Sweden’s waste goes into landfills. The rest, is either burned or it is turned into biofuel. I wrote an article on this when I lived in Sweden on how impressed I was with Swedish recycling and how Sweden was turning me green.
The Swedish Waste Management has a great PDF in English that talks about what Sweden is up to when it comes to turning waste into energy. So far, I believe they are the world’s greatest example and hopefully something other countries can start to replicate.
You can see that they have slowly been recycling more and producing less waste. The waste they recycle is turned into energy for heating homes and electricity. And they are so darn good at it, that they need more trash to recycle to meet their quota. They now import 700,000 tons of waste from other countries to recycle.
Watch the video above and see how importing garbage is great business for Sweden!
Interesting