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Extraction of compostable soil from household waste

Last mile delivery is the final stage in a good’s journey, where it is delivered to the end customer – the most carbon intensive stage. The growth of e-commerce is leading to increased traffic congestion and CO2-emissions from delivery vehicles. Carbon-neutral alternatives for last mile deliveries are currently being explored and some of the concepts being trialed in Gothenburg.

Umeå Municipality has a total of 19 wastewater treatment plants. The largest handles waste water from households and various companies in the area. Every year, it receives about 13 million cubic metres of waste water, containing 3,000 tonnes of organic material and 80 tonnes of phosphorus. And every day it produces 23,000 kWh of biogas.

At Gimonäs Recycling Center the households can submit their bulky waste, garden waste and the hazardous waste at no additional charge. The municipal company, Vakin, owns and operates seven recycling centers in Umeå municipality and one in Vindeln municipality.

To stop eutrophication of the sea, Gryaab treats the Gothenburg region waste water. The residue, sewage sludge, is turned into soil, fertilizer and a climate-friendly vehicle fuel.

The generation of both district heating and electricity almost entirely from waste makes the Dåva CHP (combined heat and power) plant extremely energy efficient and environmentally sustainable. Its renewable sources include sorted waste and forest industry residues.

The municipalty of Skellefteå collect waste from homes and workplaces and produces there own biogasfuell for use in the municipality cars and in the public buses.

CHP Plant

Hedensbyn was Skellefteå Kraft’s first bioenergy combine when it started operations in 1996 and has been a world leader in the development of modern bioenergy technology ever since.

The small island of Händelö, which is part of the City of Norrköping in eastern Sweden, is home to a remarkable industrial symbiosis in which by-products from one company are used as input for neighbouring companies Everything at the site is based around using green energy.

Over the past 15-20 years, Lomma Hamn has been transformed from an industrial harbor into an attractive, appreciated, and accessible residential area. Lomma municipality has not only taken care of an environmental debt and created a well-known brand but also experienced a 30 percent increase in population compared to before the redevelopment.

Malmö’s Western Harbour, previously a run-down shipyard and industrial area covering 187 hectares, is now a vibrant ‘city within a city’, with a university, around 10,000 residents and more than 16,000 people working there (figure from 2016). The area has its own systems for managing its energy supply and waste treatment, and car traffic in the area has been minimised as an environmentally sustainable approach to urban planning and mobility.

The digestion facility for the production of biogas is one of the bigger in Sweden, treating about 85,000 tons of organic material every year.