SwediSh waSte management |2011 - Avfall Sverige

Swedish waste management 2011Waste other than household wasteThe industries are responsible for managingthe waste which is not household waste.Sometimes they have at their disposal theirown landfill sites or the possibility of energyrecovery in incineration facilities.Waste from construction, renovation, reconstructionor demolition of buildings, or frommore extensive landscaping projects do notfall under the responsibility of the municipalityto collect or handle. Waste from minor maintenancework and house repairs counts ashousehold waste. Some construction anddemolition waste are classified as hazardouswaste, for example asbestos and impregnatedwood, and must be treated accordingly.Collected data on waste other than householdwaste is found in the official statistics presentedto the EU by the Swedish EnvironmentalProtection Agency.According to the EU’s Waste StatisticsDirective, each member state must report itscountry’s statistics once every two years. Themost recent statistics were reported in 2010and describe the situation in 2008, whenabout 98 million tons of waste were generatedin Sweden, including about 93 million tons ofwaste other than household waste in variousactivities, primarily the mining industry.Of the total amount of waste, 76 percentwas landfilled and 12 percent was recycled –including composting and anaerobic digestion.In all, 10 percent was used as fuel and 2 percentwas released, such as leachate or dustfrom incineration. Mining waste comprises themajority of total waste quantities, more than58 million tons. Excluding mining waste, thedistribution is different:• 42 percent recycled• 37 percent used as fuel• 15 percent disposed to landfills• 6 percent releasedIn 2008, Sweden produced close to 95.6million tons of non-hazardous waste and 2.3million tons of hazardous waste. These figuresinclude household waste.The entire EU generates 3 billion tons ofwaste. Sweden accounts for a relatively largequantity of waste, because of the miningwaste.28