Do you remember the striking scene in the movie “Back to the Future” in which the character Doc Brown uses garbage to serve as fuel for the iconic DeLorean? It is a very interesting concept capable of solving two problems at once, ensuring energy generation and the elimination of all materials that are usually thrown into landfills and only harm the environment.
Humanity has not yet reached the point of what is shown in the fiction of Robert Zemeckis, but it is very likely that in a few years new forms of recycling will be implemented. And, if it depends on Sweden, it won't be long before that happens.
Through various investments in alternative forms of energy generation, the Scandinavian country is already able to reuse 99% of all the waste produced in the national territory.
WTE plants
One of the factors that contributed for this number to increase considerably was the implementation of WTE (Waste-To-Energy) plants, which allows the generation of energy through the gases emitted during the burning process of a large amount of waste that would generally be discarded. .
In addition to using almost all the waste produced by their residents, the Swedes import garbage from nearby countries, such as the United Kingdom, Italy, Norway and Ireland. In total, Sweden has 32 WTE plants to handle this large amount of waste.
The following video shows some plants in operation and the explanation of the main responsible for this type of environmental program:
Source: Auto Sustentável