Trash to energy: Student sustainability video festival 46

As I promised in China's gender imbalance: Student sustainability video festival 45, here is another video from the talks the students voted as their favorites, Importing garbage for energy is good business for Sweden.

Everyone produces waste, and the Swedes are no different. It’s what they do with it that is unusual. Sweden recycles and sorts its waste so efficiently that less than 1 percent ends up in landfills. But perhaps even more interesting, and somewhat controversial, is that Sweden burns about as much household waste as it recycles, over 2 million tons, and converts this to energy. But even with this amount of domestic waste, the country’s 32 waste-to energy (WTE) incineration plants can handle even more. And when Sweden runs out of its own garbage, it offers a service to the rest of garbage-bloated Europe: importing excess waste from other countries.

I don't recall addressing incineration of trash to produce energy directly before, although I came close with both University of Cincinnati explores energy from waste and Paean to the power of poop, a Squirrel Case entry.  Once again, I thank my students for directing my attention to this subject.

Stay tuned for more of the videos from the talks students voted as their favorites along with the monthly meta.