Technical Development of Waste Sector in Sweden: Survey

MASTER’S THESIS IN ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES RESEARCH
2. Environmental protection,
3. Resource value of waste closing the loop,
4. Institutional development
5. Responsible issues and
6. Public awareness over the time.
Environmental rules and regulations are also the key drivers in technical development in the waste
sector of Sweden. To achieve sustainability goal, Sweden has started to take measure of sustainability
indicator and put restriction on waste management system like on landfilling. Producer’s
responsibility in production and landfill tax has dramatic influence in reducing the volume of landfill
waste in the waste management system of Sweden. Moreover, after inaugurating the producers’
responsibility, landfill tax and banning the landfill for certain waste streams, recycling of materials
and energy is recovered in double from 1994 to 2004 (SEPA, 2005).
4.2 What does Waste Mean?
According to European Union waste directive (EU Directive 2008/98/EC), “waste means any substance
or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard”. The transformation of a useful product
into waste strongly depends on the function it has for the owner and its economic value and as per
Ludwing et al., (2003) waste is the material with ’no economic value’’. However, the definition of
classical economic of waste may not be applicable for the traditional MSW because waste has
significant resource value (Wilson, 2007) today. In traditional classification, waste is divided into
three different categories as domestic, industrial and hazardous waste (Hartln, 1996). The physical
composition of municipal solid waste (MSW) includes organic and inorganic waste and combined
with paper products, plastics, food, yard waste, textile, rubber, glass, metal, dirt, bulky waste and also
different other types of waste fractions (Pichtel, 2005, p6). However, the composition of waste
changes over time due to changes in the consumption pattern of the products. The categories of
waste have been increasing over time based on the sources of generation.
Table 3 shows the typical waste composition in municipal solid waste in Sweden and this
composition might be varied for household or other waste depending on sorting facilities.
Table 3: Composition of MSW in Sweden
Waste Categories MSW after source separation (wet wt. %)
Newspapers/newsprint 7,8%
Corrugated cardboard 0,8%
Soft plastic packaging materials 7,2%
Styrofoam 0,3%
Rigid plastic packaging 7,7%
Glass packaging 2,3%
Metal packaging 1,7%
Food waste 42,8%
Diapers 5,5%
Garden waste 6,7%
KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HÖGSKOLAN
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