Finland is aiming for a circular system for waste by 2025

Street recycling bins, Finland (Source: Sitra: https://www.sitra.fi/)

Finland does not have many natural resources and no fossil fuels. This means the country has to think hard about how to run its economy. Now it is aiming for a circular system where everything is reused and landfill is rarely needed.

In a linear economy we buy items and send waste and unused items straight to landfill. But in Helsinki, for example, the recyclables go to the Ammassuo Waste Treatment Centre and only 1% of that ends up in landfill, the goal is to get that to zero. The majority of the recycled waste is reused or reprocessed. Glass, paper, plastics, metals and cartons are sent to recycling facilities elsewhere. Organic materials are fermented to create methane, which feeds a gas-fired power plant. The leftover organic waste is made into compost.

[N.B. Conversely, organic waste that goes to landfill is buried and in this environment without O₂ it forms methane gas, which then makes it way into the atmosphere. Methane is 21 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO₂ so it is best that it is captured, burnt and used for power. Organic waste can also go to a well aerated garden composting system.]

The waste treatment centre is supported by Helsinki’s excellent recycling system. Householders are given containers for glass, metal, paper, cartons, plastics and biodegradables, what is left goes into general waste. There are incentives to sort, such that householders pay for their waste to be collected and those that sort more pay less.

As reported in 2018, not all householders were cooperating by sorting their waste and a lot of recyclables were still going to general waste. This mixed waste, at 50% of all waste, ends up at a new power station at Vantaa, which burns it to make electricity and heat. Some of this waste is plastics which are made from fossil fuels, so not at all circular.

This reluctance to sort appears to be a worldwide human problem, so it remains to be seen how well Finland educates its people to be more cooperative so it can achieve its goal of a circular waste economy by 2025. If successful, we will need to follow their example!

Reference: Towards a world without landfill. New Scientist, No. 3203, November 10, 2018, p 8.
Read more:
- Circular Economy Breakthroughs in Schools - Business Village Students Learn Circular Economy by Doing It! (in Finnish so translate page) Sitra, August 8, 2019.
- Waste management and recycling. Info Finland.