Making electricity out of trash

Sweden recycles 99% of the waste in the country. This is the maximum the country has reached so far. More than half of the waste is burned to provide fuel for 32 power plants. The Swedes no longer have enough of their garbage, and they buy waste from the UK, Italy, Norway and Ireland. All costs for collection, processing and disposal are borne by the packaging manufacturers. And sorting of recyclables begins in apartments.​

Canada

Fine for discarding valuable trash - $200

The city government gives out multi-colored containers in which you need to fold paper separately, different types plastic packaging. Organics from the kitchen are stored in closed containers. But you can only throw away scraps in biodegradable bags, which are not cheap. If you mix up the container and throw out something wrong, the car will not pick up this tank. Garbage that does not fit into any type of waste is thrown into the garbage chute. If you throw recyclables there, they can be fined $200.

Brazil

They catch bottles instead of fish

In Brazil, about 70% of paper is recycled and 60% -. The poor are attracted to the collection of recyclables. And they are paid not with money, but with food. For six bags of waste - a food set. This way it is possible to feed more than 100 thousand people and collect 400 tons
garbage per month.
And local fishermen, instead of the fish that disappeared due to pollution of the rivers, are now catching PET bottles. In a week they manage to catch up to 700 kg from the water. plastic waste which brings in about $4,000 a year.

India

Made a park out of waste

In the city of Chandigarh there is a 16-hectare Rock Garden park. Thousands of sculptures and installations in it are made from municipal solid waste. The park was created for 40 years by road inspector Nek Chand. This did not solve the problem of weediness in India, but the park has become a national treasure of the country, about 5,000 tourists visit it daily.

Japan

Palaces for recycling

In Japan, the recycling system is considered the best in the world. The Japanese sort garbage into 5-6 containers. Where to throw what is indicated on the package. For example, it may be that the yogurt cap needs to be thrown into one container, and the bottle into another. Then everything goes to work. For example, recycled cooking oil is turned into biofuel that runs on buses. And construction waste is used to create artificial islands. Frequency waste processing plants have to be built next to residential areas, so they are trying to make them very beautiful (pictured).

Singapore

pizza box island

Singapore - the smallest country in the world - following Japan, uses waste to expand and builds the island of Semakao. For this, it uses 63 million cubic meters of dust obtained from municipal solid waste. The basis of the building material included plastic bottles, pizza boxes and other packaging. Containers were placed at the bottom of the sea, which are gradually filled with wetted dust, and covered with metal plates on top. Trees and bushes are already growing on the island. It will be completely ready by 2040. The area of ​​Cemacao will be like 654 football fields.

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Details Created on 03.04.2013 12:35

It would seem that we already know almost everything about life abroad, and yet, when visiting friends and relatives, we are surprised at many things. Among such “amazing little things” is the technology of separate waste disposal. How to properly dispose of rubbish different countries? And who makes sure that the garbage is thrown out according to the rules?

The problem of waste disposal today is recognized as one of the most important for mankind: every year there is more and more waste, and landfills are gradually advancing on the territory of human habitation. By sorting waste, foreigners help the state reduce disposal costs and reduce the area required for waste disposal. How, having arrived for a visit or for permanent residence, not to make a mistake when throwing out garbage?

Germany

Germany is the European leader in waste recycling and one of the first to introduce a separate waste disposal system. The Germans sort the garbage at home, putting it into multi-colored bags and containers. Separate glass, plastic, paper, food waste and other household junk. For each type of garbage near high-rise buildings and in private quarters, different containers are placed and there is a separate pickup day.

Hand over plastic bottles for 10-25 cents apiece at the nearest grocery store, and throw out used batteries in special boxes that are placed in stores and office buildings. First of all, the Germans themselves monitor how you throw out garbage, but there are also special “garbage” policemen. Take your garbage sorting system very seriously: if anyone notices that you are throwing everything in a pile, you face a rather big fine.

USA

America celebrates International Recycling Day, which is used as an opportunity to draw public attention to the importance of this problem. Separate waste disposal is also developed in the country, and there is a system of fines for violating the rules. AT last years Another method of dealing with waste has become popular - minimizing it. Manufacturers produce more economical packaging, and you, as a consumer, must accustom yourself to reuse the things you buy.

Switzerland

In Switzerland, you are required by law to sort waste, and if you violate it, you will pay a fine. Containers with inscriptions are placed on the streets, which will not allow you to make a mistake. Take printed products to the waste paper collection point, which are many in every district.

Separately, throw away the batteries - in special "birdhouses" near schools, compress cans using a home press, which is in every Swiss home, take old electrical appliances to collection points. The garbage control system works not only at home: try throwing something out of the car window and you will immediately earn a fine.

Sweden

In Sweden, it will be much easier for you to hand over waste paper: once a week, on the appointed day, they put it outside the door. But you will have to tinker with the bottles: they need to be sorted by the colors of the glass. In order to get rid of hazardous waste (accumulators, batteries, aerosol cans, etc.), take a walk to the nearest gas station, having previously laid out everything in containers with the appropriate colors.

Japan

In Japan, household waste will most likely need to be sorted into two containers labeled "combustible" and "fireproof." A special approach has been found in the country to the disposal of used household appliances: manufacturers have recently been responsible for solving this problem, which means that in the near future companies will either have to change production technologies or work out a scheme for receiving and processing electrical equipment.

Vatican

Even the Vatican preaches separate waste disposal! A tangible part of the Vatican garbage is waste from luxurious gardens: palm branches, cones, needles and grass. The Vatican is trying to limit the amount of paper it consumes, and press office cartridges are refilled multiple times.

Garbage accumulated in Russian landfills can fill up two Israels or four Cyprus. Horrified by the scale of pollution, we decided to turn to foreign experience and talk about how they deal with garbage in different countries of the world.

Photo: Andrey Stenin, RIA Novosti

The first thoughts that come to mind at the sight of a huge, just a giant pile of garbage, somewhat smack of pyromania. The fire will eat everything, turn to dust without a trace any garbage that a person is capable of producing, and will not even choke. The negative side of this method is obvious - it is unlikely that anyone will voluntarily agree to breathe the products of combustion contained in the smoke, and in this case no one is going to ask the ecology. But there is also a positive side here (besides, of course, the destruction of everything that would inevitably pollute the soil over a large area) - electricity. Modern waste incineration plants are small power plants. And the leader both in terms of the tonnage of incinerated waste and in obtaining electricity from it is the Country rising sun. Japan, whose population is comparable to Russia's, cannot even dream of a free territory the size of two Israel, not to mention giving it away to landfills. Therefore, there is only one way out - to burn, and to do this not only with benefit, but also with a certain grace. "Junk power plants" are not only efficient and, thanks to high technology, as environmentally friendly as they can be, but they are simply pleasing to the eye. These are not gloomy concrete buildings, but bizarre, like fairy-tale factories, a vivid example of which can be at least an elegant incineration plant on the island of Maishima in Osaka. Created by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, it is simply a masterpiece of modern architecture.

Photo: fiuzu.com

Photo: Peter DaSilva, The New York Times

In Europe, North America, Australia is not the first decade of garbage agenda determines the separate collection of household waste. Colored boxes for plastic and glass, containers for exhausted batteries - this will not surprise anyone in the post-Soviet space, and in Western countries the standard set is expanding due to paper, cardboard, metal and food waste. Everything that can be recycled is recycled, everything else goes again to incineration plants, and very little goes to landfills. The system of separate waste collection, of course, is not a cheap pleasure, but it bears fruit not only in terms of reducing pollution, but also in the social sphere - it reduces unemployment and promotes a more responsible approach to their city among citizens.

Photo: Roberto Salomone, AFP

Of course, in the developed countries of the West, with the disposal of waste (and even the collection thereof), there are periodically quite serious problems. This happens even with the leaders in the recycling of household waste, who manage to earn very, very worthy sums on this, for example, with Italy. It seems that everyone will remember the hot shots from the Neapolitan streets, littered with bags of garbage up to the very windows, with drivers on scooters maneuvering between spontaneous dumps and passers-by who do not leave the house without a gauze bandage. But the joke is that "garbage crises" are the result of not profile, but social problems. Rampant mafia in southern Italy at the end of the 2000s, it led (and sometimes continues to lead today on a local scale) to the fact that there was simply nowhere to take out and process a mountain of waste growing like a snowball. Local landfills and processing plants are overcrowded (firstly, the south of the country is densely populated, secondly, it is technologically behind, thirdly, because of the climate, waste decomposes here much longer than in the north), and companies responsible for garbage collection from neighboring regions they are simply afraid to get involved with local organized crime. But all this is rather side effect and an exception to a more than successful experience in the disposal of all that is superfluous.

Photo: Roberto Salomone, AFP

Photo: Edgard Garrido, Reuters

To use the experience of developed comrades in the separate collection and processing of waste, their developing counterparts are by no means shy. There are technologies, so most of the work is carried out in terms of educating citizens in responsibility and good will in the cleansing of the planet from the deposits of waste of civilization. For example, in Mexico, several large sorting centers have been organized, where local residents can bring self-sorted garbage in separate bags - for this the authorities thank them with coupons for which you can buy food or, say, school supplies in stores. In Taiwan, scavengers simply won't accept waste that isn't sorted into government-labeled bags—not only has this led to best performance processing, but also simply to reduce the tonnage of discarded items. Reuse is a trademark of Taipei. And the clearest example of this is the EcoArk Exhibition Pavilion, designed by architect Arthur Huang for the International Flower Show. The most complex building from a construction point of view with all communications was built almost from nothing but empty plastic bottles- as much as one and a half million of them went into business. An unusual hotel in Madrid is a more modest project. But at the forefront of recycling are, of course, artists - art objects from the waste of civilization simply cannot be counted.

Photo: Nicky Loh, Reuters

Photo: Fabrice Coffrini, AFP

Of course, someone else's experience can be not only positive, but also negative. For the latter, third world countries and even some of the actively developing countries are fully taken the rap, where not only fields with forests, but even rivers turn into dumps. Pictures of such landfills flash from time to time in the media. mass media, striking the imagination, but even in such a deplorable situation, garbage manages to be sorted and recycled. Without the help of the state, but only at the expense of the labor of local residents. And this work is by no means volunteer work - unemployment, a difficult economic situation force thousands of people to naturally settle in landfills, devoting their days to searching in the garbage for everything that can be sold for money. Most of these are non-ferrous metals and electronics. The city of garbage collectors in Egypt, the famous Cairo district of Manshiyat Nasir, from which the Copts from which they have been collecting garbage for generations, is still the civilized side of landfills in the third world.

Photo: Jaime Davila

Photo: Rodrigo Abd, AP

The main landfill of Guatemala, located near the capital of the same name, is simply called the mine. In quarries littered to the top with household and industrial waste, thousands of local residents work, and their work is reminiscent of mining open way. Garbage bowels of the Earth. Picks, shovels, washing in drain waters - the Guatemalans allegedly mine gold (gold jewelry, by the way, they sometimes come across in the trash), feed their families and return tons of recyclables to the economy, while at the same time cleaning their country. Another clear example is Ghana. Not some particular dump, but the whole country, which is called the dump of the planet behind its back. A country that outsources the collection and sorting of someone else's garbage. And this is the key to survival for a very large percentage of local residents. They disassemble the waste (mainly electronics) to the ground, extract everything that has at least some value, and set the rest on fire. Fire without electricity. The bad experience of others motivates no worse than a good one - two Israels on the scale of the territory of Russia are not so many, but it’s not worth starting the situation.

Photo: Andrew McConnell, Panos Pictures

Let's start with recycling methods. The first and main one is incineration. By the way, it is also more common. There are a lot of waste incineration plants. The second way is to drip. Only biodegradable waste can be dumped. The third is recycling, that is, processing for further use. AT recent times this method is very popular. Moreover, the waste is sorted by type, and each type is put into its own container. Containers are containers and bags of various colors: each garbage has its own color of the tank. And then the sorted garbage is taken to recycling plants. The most intelligent in this respect were the French. They put chips on trash cans. And now they have information about filling the tank and when it is necessary to take out the garbage accumulated there. This information helps in adjusting the routes of garbage trucks: where to go first, where to go last. Good way optimization of time and effort.

In waste recycling, Japan is ahead of the rest. She could not overtake only Brazil. The Japanese are considered to be smart people, and will not waste their energy in vain. Everyone knows that this country is located on an island. The island is small: a lot of people, not enough space. There is no place to put garbage. And since there is nowhere to put it, you need to recycle it. How? Most of the waste is incinerated. The thermal energy released during this process is used to heat flower greenhouses. I collect flowers and immediately sell them for a small price. I disassemble all household appliances, old bicycles, furniture, restore them and again for sale.

Near each house they have plastic containers. Used things, household and food waste are put there - each garbage has its own bin and its own color. Moreover, each container has given name corresponding to the type of waste. Here's the most interesting thing, 20 types of raw materials are removed from the garbage in nine groups, not excluding batteries, vegetable oils, car batteries. The whole population and even children are involved in the collection and sorting of garbage. Waste separation starts at home.

The Japanese even learned how to make building material from organic waste. This same material, when interacting with sea ​​water become as strong as concrete. It is used for the construction of artificial islands along coastal strip. These islands are populated by people, houses, business centers, parks, airports are being built. As they say, there is a place to work, relax and spend the night. Moreover, these artificial territories are no different from the real ones. And since Japan does not stop exploring the territory of the World Ocean, the need for such building material will be in demand for a long time to come.

Well, we got to Brazil. The trend is to recycle, and it has become widespread here. There is such a city Curitiba. He managed to overtake and take first place in the collection of valuable household waste on earth. Most paper (70%), plastic (60%), metal and glass are recycled. Japan with its 50% left far behind, and yet it is considered the leader. The poor are involved in garbage collection, very interesting way. In some countries for the collection of raw materials give a monetary reward. Here they acted differently: for 6 bags of garbage they give one bag of food. Every week, 102 thousand people receive food in 54 poor areas, which allows us to collect 400 tons of waste every month.

In America, garbage is collected in plastic bags. As the bags fill up, they tie them up and take them out to containers near the house. And from there they are taken by special services, taken to conveyors and sorted. Bottles, paper, cans, bottles of drinks are taken from the mountains of garbage. Send all this stuff for recycling. All sorts of notebooks are made from paper, notebooks marked "recycling" - made from waste. The rest of the garbage is sent to landfill. Fortunately, there is where - America is a big country.

There was a problem with metal cans for drinks. So they solved it very quickly. For each deposited jar, they were given 5 cents, and things started to go well. A good way to make money, which some people did. Some time passed and small presses for paper, cardboard, cans began to go on sale. And now they stand in every institution and press, press, press.

Here is one drawing as an example. One man (a certain Jung from Detroit) set out to build a castle. For which, for 20 years, various household garbage was collected from the surrounding landfills. For what the eye catches on, then he took it. This business ended with the construction of a house on two floors, 16 rooms, a large hall with a fireplace. There were spiral staircases, and even a drawbridge. To top it off, the house was surrounded by a moat of water. And the entire construction cost a minimum of money, since their garbage was made.

Germany and Canada are not much different from their neighbors. Residents divide their garbage into three parts: food waste and pieces of paper go to compost. Everything that can be recycled - glass, waste paper, pieces of iron, plastic - is recycled. What cannot be disposed of is collected separately and for burial.

Everything is quite simple and solvable. The main thing is to be most interested in not being overwhelmed with the products of one's own vital activity at one fine moment.

Benefits, banknotes and garbage teleport

Back in the middle of the last century, the problem of garbage was not so acute. The most developed countries simply brought it to Africa and continued to develop further. But very quickly, nature showed that everything in it is cyclical. In medieval cities, people simply threw garbage out the window and got the plague as a result. Europeans and Americans received garbage islands in their territories and many other problems from the garbage that arrived from Africa, which they also sent there. Waste dumped in the desert couldn't just dissolve into a vacuum. Since then, the most developed countries have come a long way in terms of disposal and recycling. They approached the issue as pragmatic as always, and very quickly learned how to make a lot of money on this.

The garbage business began with a division. But not territories or financial flows, but garbage. In European cities, there was a massive propaganda about how good it is to put garbage in different bags, and how bad it is to dump it in one pile. Separate collection allowed even at the stage of the consumer to separate organic matter, household waste, glass, plastic, paper, batteries, metals. Secondary sorting took place directly on the conveyor, and then each processor sent the garbage where it saw fit.

But if you want not to give away, but to receive a few banknotes - collect and sort not only your own, but also someone else's garbage. This is how some German schoolchildren earn. Waste-to-fuel processing plants are also popular in the Netherlands. And here for the collection and separation of waste, you can get coupons for a discount on payment utilities and even for housing.

The Spaniards, unlike other inhabitants of Europe, are not so prudent. They have trash on the streets. In some cities, they decided to deal with this in a very original way. There are special teleports on the streets of Barcelona. When you throw garbage at them, it immediately ends up in an incinerator.

Surprisingly, the British, prim according to legend, are also not the cleanest. In some areas, garbage may be collected only once or twice a week. The authorities are fighting dirty, punishing them with a pound. Even misplaced trash cans on your front lawn can result in a fine of around £1,000.

Plastic is one of the most important pollutants of our time.

Plastic is one of the most polluting materials for environment. Polymers are cheap, they are universal, they can be used literally everywhere. As a result, almost half of human waste is polymers. AT vivo they take hundreds of years to decompose. In the process of decomposition, harmful substances are released, such as styrene, phenol, formaldehyde, etc. At the same time, plastic is difficult and unprofitable to recycle. So in the world, even 10% of plastic waste is not recycled.

One of the global solutions in the fight against plastic is the creation of biopolymers. Already, many of them are actively used in various areas of life. In medicine, during surgical operations, water-soluble polymers are used, which are assimilated by the human body without harm. Much less in other areas. However, with the development of technology, bioplastics are increasingly appearing among conventional packaging and household products. This happens because it was simply not profitable for manufacturers to invest in this industry before. The production of bioplastics was much more expensive. But with the development of technological progress, obstacles are gradually removed. In 2013, the biopolymer market was just under $65 million. It has now tripled in size. Forecasts for 2020 total number bioplastics will make up 5-7% of all polymers. Now it is about 1%.

One of the most common in this moment biopolymer is considered to be polylactide. It is extracted from lactic acid. The Swiss company Sulzer has established a plant for the production of such plastics in the Netherlands, which produces about 5,000 tons of biopolymers per year. Interestingly, the company did not have to completely change the technology. For the production of bioplastics, it was enough to slightly modernize the enterprise for the production of conventional polymers. Even more interesting is that one of the main shareholders of this company is a financial group from Russia - Renova.

Plastic recycling is also cultivated in Switzerland itself. To simplify the process, it is customary in the country to separate garbage not only by quality, but also by color. At the same time, the lids from the container are stored in a separate container.

In the US, plastic waste is dealt with in different ways. For example, in Minneapolis and St. Pau, it is in principle forbidden to sell products in plastic packaging, unless it is made from biopolymers. The states have a program for sorting polymer waste, which is encouraged by the state. Citizens receive various preferences for collected bottles - from cash rewards to benefits and bonuses. And in one of the US universities came close to technologies that in the future can help get rid of plastic in principle. Plastic is placed in a barrel with a catalyst and heated for 3 hours at a temperature of 700 degrees. After that, the plastic turns into carbon, which is used to charge batteries. They are said to work much better and longer than others.

In Japan, as early as 20 years ago, they passed laws severely restricting the use of hydrocarbon polymers. Legal entities pay much less taxes if they themselves sort or process such waste. Individuals receive various preferences, for example, in the form of reduced utility bills, etc.

In Germany, they approached the problem differently. In addition to the fact that they have a cult following in sorting and separating waste, German clothing brands also use recycled plastic. The Puma brand has produced a special line of clothing called InCycle. The German “circle” (namely, this is how the name is translated) included traditional sportswear made from natural fabrics interspersed with polyester, which was obtained from recycled plastic bottles. The entire collection was created from biodegradable raw materials. The company has installed special bins in its stores where you can throw worn-out shoes. The part that is not biodegradable will go to the production of new clothes. The other will become a polyester granulate, which the manufacturer claims is not hazardous to nature.

In Edmonton, Canada, they have learned how to make biofuel from plastic waste. It is mainly used for racing cars. Methanol is obtained from the waste, which allows the car to develop tremendous speed. More processed products are used to heat the city.

In China, scientists conducted an experiment with the decomposition of plastic using petroleum ether with iridium. Plastic is heated with this catalyst at a temperature of 150 degrees. What is obtained as a result of decomposition can be used as fuel. The real disadvantage is that a part of the catalyst is able to decompose 30 parts of plastic. Given that iridium is an expensive material, its commercial use is currently not profitable. Scientists continue to work on making the technology cheaper.

Plastic recycling in Russia

In Russia, the problem of plastic recycling, like many other types of waste, is quite acute. One of the main problems is that we do not have a common understanding of what to do with plastic, how to sort it, etc. This is not counting infrastructure problems, lack of technology, laws. At the same time, Russia is still taking certain steps in the fight against plastic.

For example, scientists at Samara University have developed a technology for creating bioplastics based on organic waste, herbs and fruits. At Kemerovo University, work was underway on a genetically modified plant based on tephroseris (field cross), which is capable of decomposing plastic.

In the Republic of Komi in the city of Yemva, a plant for the production of paving slabs from recycled plastic. There are special bins in the city where the population throws away plastic containers. As a result, 30 m2 of plastic paving slabs are produced every day.

Polymer waste is one of the main problems of the 21st century. Different countries deal with it in different ways. But one thing is clear: waste recycling, perhaps on a par with virtual reality, IT, gadgets, is becoming one of the most promising business areas.