Hold tight people, this is one of those “how many years ahead are these people” moments and it comes from our Scandinavian friends: Sweden is currently importing garbage from Norway in order to fuel its energy plants!
Yes, you’ve read that right. These people are importing other people’s household trash. But first, let’s start with the not so “wow” information because i don’t want to let it slide.
Sweden has waste incineration plants that actually burn garbage and generate 20% of Sweden’s district heating and provide electricity for a 250.000 million homes. Here’s one of these waste incineration plants: (the article continues after the ad)
And here’s the fun part:
Swedish people recycle everything. And when we say everything, we do mean 96% of everything. Only 4% of household waste goes ends up the landfills. In order for these power plants to operate though, they need a constant flow of garbage. This is why Swedish government is importing eight hundred tons of trash from Norway and keeps its energy plants on full speed throughout the year.
And it gets even more weird: Norway is even paying Sweden to take their waste out of the country! The Norwegians know what they’re doing though (they are also Scandinavians after all). This is a win-win situation as in Norway, it’s more expensive to burn their trash than to export them to Sweden!
If you like what you read, then you will definitely love this one: What Does Häagen-Dazs Mean?
Main Article Photo: Buzzworthy, Vattenfall / Flickr
Photoshop: I’m A Useless Info Junkie
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