SWEDISH WASTE MANAGEMENT |2010 - Avfall Sverige

SWEDISH WASTE MANAGEMENT 2010
LANDFILL
In 2009, 63,000 tons of household waste
went to landfills. This is a decrease by 77,000
tons, or 55 percent, compared to 2008.
Divided over the population, it represents 6.7
kg per person. It also means that 1.4 percent
of the household waste was landfilled. In
2009, a total of 1,030,000 tons of waste was
deposited at the Swedish landfills for municipal
waste, a decrease of 640,000 tons compared
to 2008. Landfilling is the treatment
method that is used for waste which cannot be
treated otherwise, for instance tiles, porcelain
ware and crushed concrete.
In 1994, Avfall Sverige – Swedish Waste
Management started to collect statistics on
household waste deposited to landfills. The
amount of landfilled waste has decreased
considerably since then, and in 2003 the environmental
objective, to halve the waste going
to landfills compared with 1994, was achieved.
This was a goal set for 2005.
The 31st of December 2008 much stricter
EU regulations regarding landfilling took
effect, and almost half of all landfill sites for
municipal waste were closed. In 2009, 85
landfills were still open. Most of these landfill
sites take non-hazardous waste, while 21 of
them also accept hazardous waste. Only 5 of
the sites are limited to inert waste.
Landfills that are closed must be capped
with a final cover. Together these landfills
cover an estimated area of 25km 2 , and the
estimated total cost for final covering of the
sites is about 6 billion SEK. Every year,
approximately 6-8 million tons of material is
used for the final covers of landfill sites.
Natural material is not always available, and
in many cases, residues, such as contaminated
soil, ashes, sludge etc, is used instead.
During 2009, approximately 248 GWh was
produced from recovered landfill gas at 36
active landfills, of which 11 GWh was used for
electricity. An additional 35 GWh of landfill gas
was flared. Energy is not produced from flaring,
but methane emissions are reduced.
During the same period, approximately 46
GWh was produced from recovered landfill gas
at 12 landfills that were closed in 2008, of
which about 6 GWh was used for electricity,
and 8 GWh was flared.
In 2009, at least half of the active landfills
indicated to have local treatment of leachate.
Local leachate treatment includes, in most
cases, some form of biological treatment to
reduce the emissions of nutrients. Leachate
will however change character in the long run,
since depositing of organic waste is prohibited.
In 2009, 4.8 million m 3 of leachate was
collected from approximately 80 percent of
the active landfills.
At modern landfill sites, waste disposal is
only part of the business conducted. At most
sites, they also attend to the separation of
waste materials going to treatment, to transport
on to recovery and recycling, and to
energy recovery. Sometimes the landfill sites
also serve as temporary storage of large quantities
of waste that fall under the producer’s
responsibility, such as paper and glass.
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