Recycling, reusing and reducing
It doesn’t smell bad, it smells money
A good example of circular economy in Stockholm
To reduce, recycle and reuse are the ideal way of dealing with waste in modern times. But how to do it is not as easy as people imagine. While people are still easy to see the “white flags on the trees” or rubbish spread up without any treatment, in Sweden it has become a normal practice of recycling and reusing waste. We can have a look at how a large land fill is operated with our Stockholm correspondent Xuefei Chen. This can be seen as part of a good example of circular economy.
After half an hour by train to Bro, northwestern Stockholm, I arrived in the largest landfill area in northern Europe.
Guide Lotta Jansson drove a green van to pick me up. As soon as I got on the van, she began to talk about the land fill. This landfill is owned by Ragn and Sells, a company which was formed in the 1960s. Ragnar Sellsberg’s father established a transportation company in 1881. By 1933 Ragnar himself became the boss. But after 30 years of engaging in transportation and other trade, he declared to establish a new company focusing on recycling garbage and waste.
He bought about 1000 hectares of land which was full of bushes and trees only for dealing with waste. Currently his son and daughter are in charge of the company which has branches in Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Poland.
Turning rubbish into biogas and fuel for heating
After another five kilometers drive, we arrived at the landfill. Lotta said that this is the largest waste site in Nordic areas according to the weight of waste. Everyday there are about 100 trucks coming here. Each truck must weigh its waste. There is a big scale at the entrance so they can weigh the vehicle when it goes in, and then the truck unloads the waste somewhere. As it goes out, the empty truck is weighed again so that they know how much waste it leaves here. The vehicle coming here must have an order saying which company it comes from, what kind of materials it is, and later people know how much waste they bring in.
Sometimes, one truck is loaded with two containers because the waste is from two different companies. There is a way to weigh them separately too. So it is very regulated.
“We also try to prevent the gas leak out from the landfill. All the waste here produces gas and it is a mixture of different gas, so you can’t use it for vehicles, but you can use it for heating, so all the buildings nearby are heated up by this gas. And we have a pipeline down to the community’s heat plant. About 2000 households nearby are heated up by the waste from this landfill.” said Lotta.
They also collect water from the landfill and then treat it. The main problem with the water is the nitrogen and over nutrient. They first take out some nitrogen from the water and then use it to water a kind of red willow trees. The water will go along the ditch and goes out to a small pond.
As we go ahead, I see a hill of mixed garbage of paper, wood and plastics.
“You can see some heaps further on the other side, that’s the fuel we produce here. We shred the wood, paper and plastic in this big shredder into different sizes according to our customers’ requirement. Our customers are mainly heating plants, and they tell us which mixture we should make for them. Sometimes they want us to make it in larger pieces, sometimes in smaller pieces, and what kind of material it should have, which temperature it should be, it all depends on their demands. They will use them directly in their oven or furnace.”
Lotta said that here they only receive mixed materials coming from different companies, not individuals because individual households have paid to put their garbage in the recycling bins in the communities.
According to Swedish law, companies should be responsible for dealing with their own waste. To sort them out will be very expensive for companies let alone they don’t have that large space for garbage. So they all send their waste here. But they have to pay for it.
Sometimes there is metal or textile product in the waste. There is a man who drives a big machine arm to pick up the metals.
Sometimes they also find electronic waste such as old TV or computers. Lotta said they usually separate them from other waste and send them to another place special for electronic waste. They can recycle the plastics and metals from E-waste.
There are also some Christmas trees here. Lotta said they are only allowed to have 10% of organic waste in the mixture such as Christmas trees, wood or pumpkins because organic waste can be treated differently and will easily go back to nature after composting.
Here they have composting too, but it only comes from the industry.
Using bacteria in horse manure to treat oil-polluted soil
As we drove forward, there is a place for oil polluted soil treatment.“We mixed some materials containing oil with horse manure. There is a big compost heaps down there, after a certain period of time, the oil will become water and carbon-dioxide. We can get rid of 80 to 90 percent of oil because there is bacteria that eats the oil molecules. Afterwards we can reach to the level that we can put it on our land fill. Here oil refers to fossil fuel. Oil from food is often used for producing ethanol for bus.”
Further more, I saw a big tower with a balancing pipe on top.
“In this areas we take care of ashes, it is mainly the ashes from heating plants and industry chimneys, we take care of coal incineration ashes and collect all the flying ashes and put water in it, then it becomes concrete, and then we put it down there. This is a large concrete landfill. We stabilize ashes. Today there is no contamination leaking into the nature now, but we don’t know if it is contaminated in the future. We don’t know what will happen in 100 years”.
At the bottom of the ashes there is sand heaps. And the sand together with soil from other recycling process will be put in the land fill behind the ash treatment equipment.
Lotta said actually these are metal contaminated materials. They haven’t treated them because there is no customer. But no one knows in the future if they can get some customers, for example if some construction companies need soil or sand for their work, then they will treat it. They can get mercury out of it. But right now, they have to cover them. At the bottom of the land fill lay tyres. And on the tyres they lay plastics to prevent leaking. On the plastics they put some textile fibers to protect the plastics. And then they put all the metal contaminated material there and when it is nearly as high as the tree, they will cover it fully with the plastics so that it won’t contaminate other soil. According to the law, their landfill should not be higher than the trees.
Willow trees ‘drink’ the waste water
The water from the metal contaminated soil will go to the pond. And there is another pond adjacent to it which holds the water which has been treated. The preliminarily treated water is used to water the trees. Scientists and researchers from agricultural university suggest they plant the red willow to drink the water here. The willow tree grows very quick and they have harvested it to sell it as fuel to another city called Linkoping last year. The water is also used to stabilize the ashes. “We can use the water again and again.” said Lotta.
Turning organic waste into soil for agriculture and horticulture
On the other side of the pond we saw the large composting site. In order to help organic waste to compose, they also put some horse manure into it so that the bacteria will help it compost.
There are a lot of birds flying over the waste looking for food. Lotta said these birds come from agricultural areas. It depends on the kind of waste, if there are a lot of fish or shrimps from industry, there will be more birds.
Usually the waste will stay outside for a short time then they will use a kind of machine to put it into a large and long plastic tube as if they make sausages. After sixteen weeks, the waste will become fine soil that can be used to plant flowers or crops.
When I got off the van to take photo, I felt there is strong smell. Lotta said once they put it into the plastic tube, the smell will go away. But about the smell she has another explanation.
“Some boys from school said it smelt bad when they came to visit, I told them that we don’t think it smells bad, it smells money because it is the waste here that helps provide the heating in their houses in winter.” Lotta said.
From the pond we came to the back side of the mixed waste area. Here piles up a lot of tyres.
“We collected tyres in Sweden and Norway. We can collect 6000 tyres a day.
Then we shredder them, some will be used instead of coal in concrete factories, some could be run as athletics, either energy recycled or material recycled.” Lotta said.
Recycling tyres or using them as “coal”
Beside the tyres there is a different kind of contaminated soil waiting for treatment in warmer time of the year.
Everything here will be tested by researchers so that it will be safe to be put into the landfill. Otherwise, they must treat them.
In Sweden whenever people want to build a new building, they must conduct environmental impact assessment and test if the soil is contaminated. Developers must get the paper to allow them to go ahead with the building.
Decontaminating hazardous material
Passing through the tyre area we came to the hazardous material treatment area.
First it is oil contaminated water, sludge and car wash water. Lotta said car wash area has filter underneath it, especially in the old car wash areas they collect oil, sand and water and then they have to send them here.
“In theory they should treat it themselves and recycle it. But the old area didn’t have the technology, so they have to send it here.” said Lotta.
There is a kind of basin under the tent. And it is heated up with the gas from the landfill, then all the sand and gravels sink to the bottom, the oil goes up to the surface, there is a big screw in the bottom that push up the sand and soil, and the sand and soil will be sent to mix with horse manure in the oil composting areas. The water goes to next basin, there will be something like a rope in the basin and the oil will stick into the rope and this rope will go through a machine to squeeze out the oil which will be collected and stored.
Then some of the oil will be sent to Germany for further treatment because there is a factory there that can clean the oil, and reuse it. This is according to the EU rule because they want to do something to encourage the new technology which can help reuse oil.
No antibiotics here – bacteria is a friend
Then we come to the pharmaceutical treatment. The main thing they deal with here is the nourishment from pharmaceutical industry nearby. The two workers here will check if it is safe enough, for example if the label is wrong or smashed, if yes, then they have to send them away to other place.
Here they take all the carbon, plastic and other things into the machine, and the carbon and plastic will be used as the fuel. For example some needles or old medicines, they will send the sealed containers directly to the incineration which is up to 700 degrees. The containers can be the same type as those used to hold Evian flu birds. But they don’t take any antibiotics or hormones here.
LOTTA Says THEY USE BACTERIA HERE TO COMPOST WASTE BECAUSE BACTERIA will sometimes eat something in the waste, changing it. “Here we say bacteria is our friend, we don’t treat it.” Using paint for fuel and metal containers to make new metalsThey also treat paint barrels. They can recycle some paint, but others they will send out as fuel and the barrel will be crushed to make new metals.
Car batteries can be recycled. Some chemicals can be used as fuel.
In this area everything is hazardous material and specialists will check them. Sometimes, some of them will be sent out to other treatment plant.
Special container producers have responsibility to tell them where to send the containers. Sometimes they send special containers to south of Sweden and they recycle in Denmark.
Many people working here are chemists. They also go to hazardous waste stations and identify where the waste should go. Most of the material can be identify at the site so they don’t need to come here. But sometimes it could come from school for example in chemical experiment, then it takes some work for chemists to decide what should be done about it before it is being taken here.
Lotta said there are about 100 people working here. But the whole Ragn and Sells company has about 80 landfills or waste treatment places all over Sweden and here is its biggest site. There are often students, researchers in environment, chemistry or other subject coming here to do research and they have close cooperation with them. There is an office, a hotel and an educational place about 500 meters away.
In spring and early autumn there are more student groups coming here.
Talking about how she likes her job, she is quite proud of it.
“Well it is very rewarding. I think many people say here it doesn’t look like a landfill. I meet ministers from China and visitors from all over the world. This is an important job.”
I think she not only refers to her own guiding job, but also the whole process of recycling and reusing the waste. It will be good for our future.
变废为宝 循环发展
访斯德哥尔摩郊区北欧最大垃圾处理场
人民网斯德哥尔摩3月2日电（记者陈雪霏）瑞典最大垃圾处理公司拉恩塞尔斯在垃圾回收处理再利用方面有很多独特的办法，在“变废为宝，循环发展”方面有很多值得参考的地方。我们不妨随记者到那里的垃圾处理场看看。
乘火车到斯德哥尔摩西北部的布鲁需要半个小时。抵达后我给联系人打电话。露塔.扬森开着绿色中巴来接我。从火车站到垃圾场还有5公里。一上车，露塔就开始给我介绍。原来这是个私营企业。创始人是拉纳尔.塞尔堡，公司的名字也用他自己的名字把最后几个字母去掉(瑞典文是RAGN-SELLS)。据说，他的父辈在1881年就成立了马车运输公司. 1933年，他自己成为运输公司的执行总裁，后来发展成多种经营公司。1963年，他提出要建立一个大型垃圾处理场。但董事会没有人同意，认为不可能有发展前途。人们以为这件事就这样搁浅了。谁知老塞尔斯认准了这条路，他从第二大城市哥德堡的董事会总部退出，来到斯德哥尔摩的郊区，在这里买了1000多公顷的土地。当然不是用来搞农业生产，而是用来处理和堆放无害垃圾。这里有很多自然生长的草丛或森林。1966年, 在这个广阔的地方，老塞尔堡宣布成立了一个新的公司，专门用于垃圾堆放和处理。1968年, 公司采用了现在的名字, 它是从老塞尔堡的名字发展而来的. 现在的老板是他的儿子和女儿.
用加工的混合垃圾供热
说着，我们抵达了垃圾场。这里有好几辆大型垃圾运输车。
露塔说，每天到这里来的垃圾车有100多辆。他们来自瑞典的各个地方。垃圾车进来时要经过大型地秤，可以称量垃圾车的全部体重。然后，车进到里边把垃圾卸下，出来时再量一次，扣除这次称的空车体重，就是运送来的垃圾重量。送垃圾的人必须标明垃圾来自什么地方，哪个公司。因此，这里管理很有规章，很有秩序。
由于大雪覆盖，这里还容易出现断电的情况，遇到断电的时候，他们就用自己的发电机临时发电。
垃圾送来了，他们是怎么处理的呢？
我们开车往前走，看到一个场院，这里垃圾堆成山，一堆是已经切碎的，一堆是还没有加工的混合垃圾。露塔说，这里堆的全是从公司送来的混合垃圾。由于公司没有那么大的场所来给垃圾分类，而且，分类也很费钱，所以公司宁可花钱把垃圾送到这里。由于瑞典实行公司自己负责垃圾处理制度，所以各个公司必须自己想办法。如果自己处理垃圾费用肯定不核算，所以就都送到这个专业垃圾场。一般这里的垃圾主要是塑料，纸盒和木头。这里有一个人开着象机器人一样的机器，用机械手臂把垃圾中的金属或者纺织物品挑出来，避免在处理过程中损坏机器。
在瑞典，居民区的垃圾是由各地方自己处理，居民付了钱，所以他们有权利把家中的塑料瓶等硬质塑料，罐头盒等金属器皿和纸张，有色和无色玻璃瓶等送到居民区的分类垃圾箱里。
而这里的垃圾场是专门为公司提供的。公司要送垃圾，必须给垃圾场付钱。同时，垃圾场有大型垃圾绞碎机，他们会根据客户的需求，把垃圾绞成他们所要求的尺寸，然后，包装成他们需要的垃圾形状。就是说，这些垃圾会象煤一样被送到各个地方的热电厂焚烧，为当地居民供热。
在附近的一个热电厂，可以为2000多当地居民供热，同时，他们的垃圾也会被送到其他热电厂。在这个过程中，垃圾场又要收到热电厂的一笔资金。同时，公司还利用其大型设备，为居民区运送垃圾，有的单位还需要把与垃圾有关的东西在这里存放等等，都可以获得收入。虽然一开始，他们说，这个公司并不是以赢利为目的，但是，这里的经营处处体现了循环经济的力量。
假如土壤或是其他东西含有金属类物质，他们也将得到特殊处理，保证垃圾放到外面是无害的。在这里他们只允许有10%的有机垃圾，例如，圣诞树用完了，可以送到这里一些，但很多有机物垃圾都单独就地处理了。如果这里遇到电子垃圾，旁边我们看到几台旧电脑，他们将送到另外一个专门处理电子垃圾的地方。
用马粪化解油污
对于有石油污染的土壤，他们采取用马粪和油污土壤混合发酵的办法，经过一段时间，80-90%的油变成了水和二氧化碳，尽管还有10-20%没有完全化解，但它已经可以被放到填埋场了。瑞典对家庭的食用油污经过处理，最后可以生产出供汽车使用的燃料。这里处理的是石油污染。
处理好的土壤可以被安全地存放起来，如果有建筑单位需要他们也可以卖。
用回收水处理飞灰
再往前是一个大型机械塔，顶端有个大横管道。原来这里是处理工业飞灰的。许多工厂生产过程中烟囱里有许多飞灰，人们通过吸尘的办法把灰送到这里来。垃圾厂工作人员通过使用这里处理过的污水来使飞灰变成一块块砖头，然后，他们再把黑色砖头堆放到开拓出来的大坑里，安全堆放。至少现在没有发现任何污染，人们不知道100年后是否会有什么污染。从这些飞灰中还可以获得很多沙子。处理后的沙子也堆放这里。在黑色砖头堆放处的另一面堆放很多其他土壤。例如洗车场的土壤或车祸的土都是有油污的，经过与马粪有机发酵，去除了水和石油。但它们还可能含有金属，例如水银或汞。由于目前没有找到客户，他们暂时在大坑底下铺上结实的塑料布，然后把这些土壤包裹起来，他们认为，现在没人买，所以先不处理，如果将来有人需要，再做处理也不迟，那样就不必单独出钱来处理了。“谁知道将来盖房子多了是否需要更多的土来奠基呢？”露塔说。
同时根据规定，这里的垃圾堆放不得高于周围的树木，因此，堆放过程必须注意美观问题。确实，从这里看既有森林，也有池塘，环境看起来很美，没有让人觉得这里是个垃圾场。
让能‘喝水’的柳树长的更壮
走过飞灰处理厂，我们看到了前面的大池塘和柳树。大池塘里的水一部分是从污染的土壤中分离出来的要特别处理。另一个仅挨着的池塘的污水，是接收来的。以前有一部分要送到斯德哥尔摩市中心处理，但为了履行欧盟的规定，通往市中心的垃圾通道关了，因此污水在这里处理。为了吸收处理过的水，科研人员建议他们在附近种植一种非常能吸收水分的柳树。这种红柳需要大量的水，而且长的很快。柳树长大以后，他们立即割掉卖给其他地区的热电厂做燃料。
池塘的对面是个大型的有机垃圾发酵场地。这里有10条大型塑料包，就是说，人们会把垃圾通过机器象罐香肠一样罐到大塑料包里边，经过16周的发酵，垃圾会变成很好的有机肥料，送给农场。一般在垃圾被罐之前要在这里堆放一天到两天，原因是例如在万圣节的时候有很多大南瓜，或者是公司送来的臭鱼烂虾，会吸引大量的鸟类到这里来捉食。人们不知道它们从哪里来，只是遇到特殊情况，就会有很多鸟，海鸥等飞到这里，形成另一番景象。正巧在我们路过这里时就有成百上千只大鸟在这里飞翔，捕食。当然，这时，我出去照相时发现，还是有很重的味道。
露塔说，“有时是有味道。来这里参观的小学生有时侯也说，这里闻起来不是味。不过我对他们说，我们不觉得这闻起来不好，因为实际上你们家的暖气就是通过燃烧这里的垃圾来供热的。我们倒是觉得处处闻出钱的味道。”确实，这里处处都是宝。
轮胎可以当煤用 也可以当体育器材
走过发酵场，我们来到轮胎堆放场。这里有大量的废旧轮胎堆放。露塔说，他们每天能从瑞典和挪威回收6000多个轮胎。他们把轮胎切碎，卖给水泥厂做燃料，代替煤。有一些也可以重复使用用在体育运动方面， 例如做秋千。无论是能源回收还是重复使用，废旧轮胎都再次产生了价值。
露塔说，他们这里有100多名工人在这里工作。同时，他们总有很多科研人员，环境方面的学生，中小学生和国际客人来这里参观访问。他们总是紧密的和科研人员合作。有时他们需要科研人员断定是否垃圾可以直接堆放到垃圾场，还是必须经过处理，如果需要处理，他们将直接运到处理的地方。
说着我们又饶回了刚来的地方的另一厕，这里是处理许多有害化学物质的地方。 首先，关于油污的处理，实际上，很多新的洗车厂已经安装了污染处理设备，但是，许多老城区的老洗车房没有安装，所以他们的垃圾也送到这里。到这里以后，他们用一个大容器中间放筛子，将污土放在其上，用这里的燃料加温，结果沙石碜到底下，油和水浮在上边，油和水被送到另一个容器，他们用麻绳把油吸住，然后，麻绳经过机器处理，把油挤出来回收。有一部分这里处理不了，需要送到德国去处理。 为了鼓励德国的新技术，欧盟要求所有盟内国家的这类产品都要送德国去处理。然后，剩下那些沙石土被送出去到油混合物发酵的地方，和前面提到的马粪一起发酵，再去除大部分油污。
在这里, ‘细菌是我们的朋友”
关于医疗用品垃圾的处理。这里对来自医院的医疗用品垃圾视为有毒，都要密封。我们特意下车来看，因为只有在这里，我才看到两个工人在一个拥挤的大厂房里工作。见我们来，他们非常高兴。一个工人立即给我看他们处理的针管，还有许多未打封的麻醉剂。他们说，可能是过期了。 还有些东西直接用运送禽流感瘟禽的密封容器送到这里。然后他们连容器一起都送到炉子里焚烧，塑料本身可以成为燃料，炉子高温达700度以上。工人的主要任务是要检查是否送来的东西是对的，如果不对，需要再送到其他适合的地方处理。这里不接受青霉素之类的抗生素和荷尔蒙类垃圾。原因是这里要使用细菌化解垃圾，而抗生素会把细菌消灭掉。所以露塔开玩笑说,”在这里,细菌是我们的朋友,是它们在日夜无偿地为我们工作.”
废油漆可以做燃料 漆桶回收炼为新金属过了医疗用品处理室，是油漆处理。油漆是有害物质。他们先把油漆清出来，然后，把漆桶当金属送出去。有的漆可以回收使用，有的作为燃料使用，而漆桶会重新加工成金属。
对于水银电灯管，他们也要求厂家包装好送来，然后，他们要把玻璃，水银和金属分离开来，做无害处理。
当然，该公司还有许多垃圾处理厂，在全国有80多个地方都有垃圾处理厂。同时，他们还在挪威，丹麦，爱沙尼亚，拉托维亚和波兰等国家有分公司。
在垃圾堆放地一里以外是他们这里的办公室，会议室和招待所。有时，有科研人员来这里调研或开会，他们会在这里过夜。
参观完了，我问露塔在这里工作有什么感受，她说，“我感觉收获很大。 虽然这些东西看起来是废品，但是处处都可以变废为宝。同时，由于我们做的比较好，一年四季，总有人来这里参观。 夏天的时候，我还见到了来自中国的部长，司长等，我在这里能见到来自世界各地前来参观的人们，感觉非常高兴。”
同样是垃圾，如果处理的好，可以变废为宝。当然，说垃圾焚烧，并不是把所有的垃圾一起扔到炉子里，那样，土和沙石都在里边，热量并不高。事实上，垃圾都要经过初步分类处理，使其焚烧热量达到最高值，达到热能利用和消灭垃圾的目的。
经过这样的处理，人们已经看不到垃圾成山的状况了。即使有前面说的堆积成山，那些垃圾已经变成了可以供热的燃料。人民网驻斯德哥尔摩记者陈雪霏
