Sweden imports waste from European neighbors to fuel waste-to-energy program

Is incineration really the more environmentally friendly way to go? How does this compare to something like coal in terms of environmental impact? I'm imagining giant trash furnaces spewing ash and smoke into the sky but I'm guessing that they're using something more sophisticated.

In Burnaby, British Columbia (where I live), there's a waste-to-energy facility (WTEF) that has been operating since 1988. From their fact sheet [1]:<p>"Each year the WTEF turns 285,000 tonnes of garbage into steam and electricity. The steam is sold to a paper recycling facility, while the electricity sold to BC Hydro is enough to power 15,000 homes."<p>"Metals are magnetically removed from the bottom ash and sold to a recycling company to produce reinforcing steel."<p>More details are in the fact sheet:<p>[1] <a href="http://www.metrovancouver.org/about/publications/Publications/WasteEnergyFactsheet.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.metrovancouver.org/about/publications/Publication...</a>

Does anyone is familiar with the process they are using? The article says that it involve incinerators and it doesn't sound healthy to me.

And Oslo (Norwegian capital) is importing garbage from the UK this winter.

Not unusual at all, Belgium imported 770.000 tons and exported 100.000 in 2010.<p>Here a list of european countries: <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&#38;tl=en&#38;js=n&#38;prev=_t&#38;hl=en&#38;ie=UTF-8&#38;layout=2&#38;eotf=1&#38;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.focus.de%2Ffinanzen%2Fnews%2Fnachschub-fuer-muelloefen-deutschland-importiert-eine-million-tonnen-muell_aid_728930.html&#38;act=url" rel="nofollow">http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&#38;tl=en&#38;...</a>

I wonder if Sweden has to buy the waste, or if instead they charge for the service.

It's an interesting positive spin, but the other way to look at this is that they mis-judged capacity and built too much.

What a fantastic problem to have!

They just need to consume more, problem solved.