Reducing the waste quantity

BUYING SMART IS THE BEST START

One way to reduce environmental impact is to reduce the waste quantity. Of course "buying smart" is one way to do this, but also to sort out your packaging material and food waste.

HOUSEHOLD WASTE IS INSPECTED, WEIGHED AND ANALYSED

For our strategic waste reduction work we perform recurrent analyses of the household waste. We pick through, weigh and analyse two tonnes of trash bags from different areas in Malmö and Burlöv.

In the latest analysis which was performed in March 2010 we could see that there is still a lot of waste that should be sorted out and recycled instead.

LOTS OF RECYCLABLE PACKAGing

Things we often find in the trash bags are for example newspapers, paper packaging and plastic packaging. There are also too much metal packaging. If all this was recycled instead, it would be good for the environment.

Old newspapers are recycled into new ones, plastic packaging into flower pots, metal packaging into car parts and bridges.

By sorting out and recycling we save both energy and raw material. And did you know that you can recycle plastic bags and other non-rigid plastic together with the rigid plastic?

LOTS OF FOOD

The average household in Malmö and Burlöv throws away a lot of food, both potato peels and apple cores and other things you don't eat, but also quite a lot of food that could be consumed instead of being thrown away.

A study made by Konsumentföreningen in Stockholm in 2009 showed that more than half of all the food that is thrown out is wasted unnecessarily. It should be eaten instead of thrown away.

The study made by Konsumentföreningen (new window) 

TIPS AND TRICKS

But it's not possible to eat all food waste and this is why VA SYD is currently introducing food waste recycling in Malmö and Burlöv.
The food waste is collected in brown refuse bins and eventually turned into biogas, a very eco-friendly fuel which can replace petrol and diesel.

Reduce the waste quantity by following this advice (new window).