About how the Finns mastered the new approach to waste management and what is the main problem when switching to recycling, senior researcher at the Center for Technical Research of Finland Matti Nieminen told the Rosbalt interview .
“Today, Finland is considered a country that has established one of the most efficient and rational waste disposal systems,” although it was full of landfills a few decades ago. How did the transition to the "new rails"?
- In fact, it was a gradual process. The first steps were taken back in the 1940s - it all started with attempts to separately collect paper waste. Nationally, they began to be handed over as early as the 1960s, and after another ten years commercial paper processing companies began to work actively with them. And today it is a successful business.
Then the "second life" received glass bottles and aluminum cans. And so, step by step, more and more new factions were mastered. Production of raw materials from plastic packaging, for example, was really established just a few years ago.
Today there is a question of large-scale processing of textiles - in this area much has not yet been done. In the future we plan to go even further. In particular, the possibility of working with ash, which remains after burning garbage, is being studied. After all, even it is not necessarily the "end product". Of course, you can continue to send it to special polygons, as is being done now, but we want to come up with something better. Therefore, technologies are being developed that will help us extract metals from the ashes and further reuse them.
- And what was the main obstacle in case of refusal from the burial of waste at landfills and development of their separate collection for subsequent processing?
- The biggest problem is always the same - money. In order for something to work, you need to do everything as expediently as possible from an economic point of view. In this case, it is not so simple. Therefore, the transformation in the field of waste management and need to be regulated by the state.
For example, today in Finland there is a special tax on placing garbage at landfills in the amount of 70 euros per ton. And he constantly rises - twenty years ago they paid only 15 euros. Accordingly, the greater the tax, the higher the motivation to look for alternative ways of handling wastes.
- So, this is not a problem of the mentality of this or that nation, and the whole thing is in the proper organization?
- Human nature is about the same. You just need to understand that the problem of garbage is universal. It affects society, business, and the state. But it is the state that sets the framework and makes it so that competent waste disposal is economically viable for the population and enterprises. Everything must be based on law and regulation.
“Nevertheless, far from all the garbage in Finland is sent for recycling — there are nine factories in the country today that burn a significant portion of waste. What share are we talking about?
- The share is, in fact, quite large. According to data for 2017, 58% of all waste in Finland went to the furnace. It really is a lot. Accordingly, 41% of garbage is recycled, and only 1% is taken to landfills. Today our task is to increase the share of recycled materials, and we are actively working in this direction.
- Why is not the goal set to recycle 100% of the waste?
- Technically everything is possible - and send a man to the moon. The only question is how much we will pay for it. As I said, even ashes can be reused. But at the moment this procedure is so expensive that it is completely unattractive from an economic point of view. Many factions are still unprofitable to recycle, and at the current stage it is wiser to dispose of them by incineration. And at the output we get energy. Of course, all relevant technologies must be respected.
“However, many environmentalists object to burning garbage, insisting that this method cannot be safe. Well, if the society does not trust the bodies that control the production process, the neighborhood with the incinerator may be no less a problem than living next to a landfill ...
- Unfortunately, there is no simple solution to increase this confidence. In Finland, emissions from waste disposal installations are closely monitored by government agencies. A special online monitoring system has been established at the production facilities, and if any problems arise, the whole process stops. Without a doubt, everyone must be sure that life next to such an enterprise is absolutely safe.
Interviewed by Tatyana Khruleva
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