Sweden's Unusual Solution to the Energy Crisis

Recycling and conservation are the solution to climate change and to saving energy. America sends a majority of its trash to landfills when it could be put to much better use by means of recycling or even by burning it to produce energy. Pollution is greatly reduced when recycling because the need to collect new raw materials goes down. Recycling is great because it can help people conserve this Earth for future generations who deserve to have a healthy Earth. Once the United Stated reaches recycling levels of 75%, it would be the equivalent of getting rid of fifty five million cars from the roads in the U.S. each year.

In america alone, most of the fossil fuels used to produce energy are unintentionally wasted. (Source F) If this continues, future generations are not going to be able to remain on some areas of this planet, if any at all. Pollution, a major factor in global warming, has the ability to be reduced in electrically powered vehicles, simple changes in light bulbs, and even just plugging out appliances not in use. (Source F) By the government regulating these effortless practices , they can eliminate fears of destroying the world for their

There is nonetheless opposition to companies that seek to turn landfill gas into electricity, for several reasons such as its relative high costs, local air pollution but namely it suggests that it is acceptable to dump waste at landfill sites rather than pursue waste minimisation or recycling initiatives (Shrank, 2011). Veolia states that it ‘encourages waste minimisation and recycling’ (Veolia, 2014), however if a

Imagine walking down a forest path, feeling the crisp fall breeze, hearing the birds chirping, breathing in the fresh air. The earth's environment is wonderful and as stewards of this plant, it is every human's job to protect and even enhance its beauty. Dumping incinerated garbage into a hole in the Earth is not exactly being a good steward. However, science has developed the technology of recycling, and people should use this blessing as readily as possible. In other words, everyone should recycle, and if they won't do it on their own, recycling should become a requirement. Recycling should be mandatory because it helps minimize pollution, conserve energy, preserve natural resources, and create jobs.

Sustainable development has been a growing concern for the modern day civilization as more people become aware of the fact that our style of living is simply not sustainable for the environment and the entire planet on a global level. This is very much evident in such things as the ozone layer depletion, the growing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere and the endangerment of many wildlife species due to loss of habitats. A major concern is the limited amount of fossil fuels. Most of the plastics that we use are derived from fossil fuels and thus more attention is being drawn into recycling of plastics.

Everyday waste is produced, rather it be from throwing out food, old cloths or using plastics, humans generally create a plethora amount of garbage. Ever since garbage disposals were created by a Wisconsin architect in 1927 (History, 2017), garbage has increased exponentially (Stromberg, 2013). Much as Carolan, 2017 states, “We moderns really want our waste to just disappear.” Because of this notion, it has become socially acceptable to just throw anything away that humans just don’t want. In many places, a more recent trend is to be more green; recycle plastics and use the methane that goes into breaking down the waste to convert it to energy generation. However, regardless of how eco-friendly countries try to be, waste is still produced at a staggering level and this more than likely will not change

“Today U.S. citizen’s produce over 250 million tons of municipal solid waste, before recovery, which is close to one ton per person”, says Jay Withgott’s 6th edition book. The world is growing in population and people are just exceeding in the amount of waste they are adding to the Earth. Waste is defined as any unwanted material from a human activity or process. Municipal solid waste is an extensive problem in the United States, but so is Industrial solid waste and Hazardous waste. If everyone repurposed items that can be reused, we would be saving plenty of resources. Recycling is the one of the best ways to get rid of waste. Recycling is the process of turning used materials into materials that can be reused as a material or for a new purpose. Per the North Carolina Data Waste Management, the amount of trash North Carolinians throw away, would fill enough Dumpsters to line the length of North Carolina’s Interstate 40 more than six times in one year. That is almost 2,750 miles of dumpsters each year. We are going to focus on how recycling saves energy, conserves waste by reusing materials, and protects natural resources if recycling materials are being used. This relates to the protection of land and ecological resources and why one should recycle.

Due to the global consumer society we live in, the world has no shortage of trash. There are billions of people across the world that purchase, use, and dispose of products. As a result of the high-volume waste production, there are different options for disposing that waste. The leading options of disposing trash are recycling and incineration. Recycling renews waste to become reused and redistributed whereas incineration burns waste into energy. It is significant to choose the correct route of disposing waste to make sure it benefits communities, the economy, and the environment. Natural resources are finite, so it is necessary to use a disposal process that reduces the raw material production and extends the life of products that already exist. For this reason, recycling is a great solution.

McDonough discovered waste has an 82% correlation to US economic growth by examining the Association of American Railroads (AAR) carloads of trash with the U.S. GDP. The U.S has experienced a GDP decline of approximately 20% between 1994 and 2012 and a decline of waste production of approximately 30% (See Figure 16) (McDonough). From Figure 16 one can see that something is wrong in the economy, potentially, in the underlying economy. And that recent downturns in the waste production is concerning regarding the near term direction of the overall US economy.

The short term solution to deal with the over abundance of garbage has been landfills, although this might not be an option in the near future as land used for landfills is becoming more scarce and they tend to create methane gas (4). Another solution is “waste to energy” plants, where garbage is incinerated, which on one hand provides a source of energy, but on the other causes air pollution(4) . This and the cost of the plant have caused people to rethink this “waste to energy” plants. Recycling is a more appealing solution and has grown in popularity in the recent years as the local government advocate it. The British government and other European countries are working on becoming greener by designing more eco friendly cars and of course advocating recycling (4). This does not mean that recycling has no drawbacks, as reusing materials usually requires more energy than when they are first produced. Another challenge that engineers face is the ever so resilient tire and how to properly

In today’s growing world we are using our natural resources way more than we used them ever before and because of that we are slowly but substantially running out of them. So to save our environment we should first learn how to manage waste. To do so there are two ways first to recycle which everyone knows and which is significantly cheap and does not affect our environment at all or the second is convert the waste to energy which in fact emits greenhouse gases, is not at all cheap and not good for our environment.

Most people agree they want the gases to be taken care of. Using cars and planes less, recycling and conservation lowers a person’s “carbon footprint” (the amount of carbon dioxide a person is responsible for emitting into the atmosphere).

However, it will focus on the first, second, third and fourth objectives mentioned above. The first objective will be reviewed by first defining waste and municipal solid waste in the UK. It will then look at waste management practices, using the hierarchy of waste, the various waste legislations, the need for energy form waste and as a renewable resource. The second objective will be achieved by reviewing the energy from waste process; incineration, Pyrolysis, gasification and anaerobic digestion. It will take an in-depth analysis into the process of incineration of energy recovery as well the effect of the process on the environment. The third objective will be achieved by looking at the current state of the UK energy market, comparing and contrasting it with Germany, whether it’s potential is realised, and if not, what can be done. Finally, the fourth objective will be attained by identifying the public perception towards waste management, the challenges affecting their participation towards waste management process. To conclude this literature, a temporary finding has been developed which is used to ascertain the direction of this study.

One thing that people will always remember when it comes to restoring the environment is "reduce, reuse, recycle". Recycling products keeps them out of landfills, and reduces pollution caused by waste. Landfills contaminate groundwater, which in turn contaminates the soil, and produces methane. Methane, which is a greenhouse gas, is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide (Amy 's Web, 2009). When society is able to recycle products rather than throw them to landfills, they are able to reduce the need for raw materials. The United States Environmental Protection

There is a very real energy crisis in regards to the future of man, which will leave a cross generational affect if not treated now. The energy crisis is something that many don’t give enough attention to in the world of politics. The issue is gradually becoming more prevalent as years progress with focusing on the ways that energy gets used. The resources that are referenced are natural resources, such as coal and oil. However there is one product that is manmade and this would be gas from fossil fuels. “The best way to sum up the reality of the energy crisis is that you cannot have growing demands on limited resources without eventually running out of the resource” (conserve-energy). Essentially there is an overconsumption of energy, the infrastructure that is used to create the “efficient” energy is outdated and the quality is poor and to press even further there hasn’t been enough exploration of renewable energy. A proposal must start with the steps to solving this issue, one must examine how all these resources get used and at what rate. This proposal would investigate and seek to create a recyclable source of energy much like the industrial revolution, but with eco friendlier approach.