Today almost everywhere people are talking about the environment protection and various methods and techniques are being devised for it but there is one nation which is having a vision of “zero-waste” by the year 2020. Sweden is a nation where almost 99% of the waste is recycled or reused and only 1% of the waste is dumped into land-fillings. Isn’t it a great thing that a nation where about 62% waste was wasted in 1975 has minimized it to only 1% today. It has set up a milestone in waste management. It can be considered as a revolution in the field of waste management. Well, it’s not like this all has occurred all of a sudden but there’s a successful strategy of the Sweden behind it.
The foremost step taken by the Sweden to achieve this milestone was the step to utilize the waste into energy production. It is the best way to utilize those wastes which cannot be recycled or reused. Sweden recovers more energy from each tonnes of waste than any other nation. The 32 plants in Sweden today produce heat for 810,000 households and electricity for 250,000 private houses.
Not only the authorities but the citizens of Sweden are also playing an acute role in achieving the target of “zero waste”. People of Sweden themselves segregate wastes into different dustbins thus making it easier to recycle the wastes. Swedish households keep separating their newspapers, plastic, metal, glass, electric appliances, light bulbs and batteries. Recycling stations, as a rule have been set up no more than 300 metres from the residential areas. Many municipalities also encourage consumers to separate food waste. After the segregation, all these things are either recycled, reused or composted. Newspapers, bottles and plastic materials are either reused or become raw material for other products. Food and other organic waste is converted to compost through various complex chemical processes. Waste water is purified to an extent such that it can be used for drinking purpose. Special rubbish trucks running on recycled electricity or bio-gas are run around the cities to collect various electronic and hazardous wastes. Pharmacist must accept the left-over medicines. People themselves take their larger wastes such as TV or furniture to the recycling centres.
Even the Sweden has been successful in tackling the heavy waste emissions. It has been successful in reducing the heavy waste emissions by 99% since 1985, even though it emits three times more waste today. Thus, the authorities are being supported by their citizens to make their country an ideal in the field of waste management.
Looking to all these aspects and efforts of Sweden, it won’t be a big deal for them to achieve their milestone of “zero-waste” by the 2020. All other nations and especially their citizens should take some inspiration from the Sweden and its citizens to become more environment friendly and economical not only to themselves but to the whole globe.