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Waste management in Copenhagen Mette Skovgaard Sustainability Unit City of Copenhagen, Denmark
Waste management in
Copenhagen
Mette Skovgaard
Sustainability Unit
City of Copenhagen, Denmark
Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen 2
• Introduction to the City of Copenhagen
• Principles & division of responsibilities
• Collection and treatment waste
• Results
• Waste and Resource Management Plan
2018
Outline of presentation
Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen 3
Facts about Copenhagen
• Capital of Denmark
• 88 km2
• 570,000 inhabitants
• 297,000 households
• 90% living in apartments
• Annual increase in population
of about 10,000
• 355,000 workplaces
• 30,000 enterprises
• Waste (2010): 821,000 tonnes
Photo: Ursula Bach
• Waste driven to dumpsites
• Population growth
• Rapid economic growth
• Increasing amount of waste
• Lack of capacity
• Growing environmental
awareness: Groundwater
• NIMBY
• Something had to be done
Up until the 1960s: Dumpsites
4
• In 1970, two incineration plants were
opened in the vicinity of Copenhagen
• Managed and operated by inter-
municipal entities
• Amagerforbrænding in the east of
Copenhagen
• Vestforbrænding just north-west of
Copenhagen
• Reduced health hazards and used
the waste as a source for heat and
electricity
• Connected to an extensive district
heating system
Instead of dumpsites - Incineration
5
Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen 6
Responsibilities
• Statutory order on waste
• Recyclable waste from industry and commerce (market driven)
• Data collection
• Register for waste transporters and treatment facilities for recyclable waste
National (Danish Environmental Protection Agency)
• Local regulation
• All aspects of household waste, incl. packaging waste
• Assignment of waste for incineration and landfilling from commerce and industry
• Classification of waste
• Inspections of waste producers and treatment facilities
• Ownership of incineration plants and landfills
• Waste planning
Municipalities
Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen 7
Principles for Danish Waste
Management System
• Waste hierarchy
• Source separation
• National taxes on treatment (since 1987)
• Recycling 0 EUR
• Incineration ~45 EUR
• Landfill 63 EUR
• Ban on landfill of organic waste (since 1997)
• Waste fees not part of tax system
• Municipal waste budget has to balance over a period of time
Collection of household waste in Copenhagen
From 2009-2011, the City of Copenhagen has
undergone tendering of household waste
• Previously collected by private foundation
since 1898
• Tendering of collection of waste
• Tendering in city districts
• Tendering in special waste fractions
• Recyclable waste sold by the municipality at
market value
Collection and treatment of
commerce and industrial waste • Waste producers find own transporter for
collection of waste
• Transporter or waste producer find
treatment facility for recyclable waste
Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen 8
Copenhagen Waste Management System 9
Collection of waste from households
• Collection schemes
• Collect- and bring schemes
• Proximity principle
• Easy and logical
• Source separation
• City responsible for all
household waste
• 5 recycling centres
6 small recycling centres
• Receive 30 fractions of waste
(12 on small)
• Free of charge (per visit) - fee paid
on an annual basis
• Residual waste
• Paper
• Cardboard
• Rigid plastic
• Metal
• “Small electronics”
• Batteries
• Bulky waste
• WEEE
• Garden waste
• Hazardous waste
• Glass (bring
banks)
• Recycling centres
1
0
From landfilling to incineration to recycling: results
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1988 1992 1994 1999 2004 2006 2010
Landfill Incineration Recycling
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• Total: 808,000 tonnes
• Recycling 59%, Incineration 38%, Landfilling 2%, Special treatment 1%
Waste production in 2012
-
50.000
100.000
150.000
200.000
250.000
300.000
350.000
400.000
Household Commercial C&D
Recycling Incineration Landfilling Special Treatment
• Change from incineration to recycling
• Focus on green growth and resource efficiency
Target in 2018
• 20 % reduction in waste to incineration
• From 324,000 tonnes in 2010 to 260,000
tonnes in 2018
• 45 % of household waste to recycling
• From 55,000 tonnes in 2010 to 100,000
tonnes in 2018
• Plan came into force 1 January 2013
Resource- and Waste Management Plan 2018
Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen
New collection system for rigid plastic, metal and electronics
The figures
• 23 000 waste containers
• 7 800 collection sites
• Approximately 240 000 households
• 450 000 inhabitants
The new collection system
• 3 containers (metal, WEEE and rigid plastic)
• Residual household waste containers removed
• Collection frequency – once every 4th week, fixed, if people need more additional volume is added in stead
• 3 chamber waste collection trucks – means people are only “disturbed” once
Picture by Ursula Bach
Information campaign
“Recycling is gold”
• Caretaker events • Events held, visited by 390 caretakers. Positive response
• Letter to households with sorting guide and stickers • 190 600 distributed so far, sent to the households the week before implementation
• 50% remembers having received the material. 70% of these have briefly read it, 50% have saved the material
• Events near public venues • 7 events so far, 150-300 visitors per event
• The campaign is a success • 84% remembers noticing it, our goal was 55%
• Keeping the momentum • News letters, sorting award, addressing the youth
• Advertising in movie theatres Picture by Ursula Bach
Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen 15
Collected rigid plastic waste per month, tonnes: collected (bars) and forecast (dotted line)
0,0
10,0
20,0
30,0
40,0
50,0
60,0
70,0
80,0
90,0
100,0
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Ton
Indsamlede mængder pr. måned: Hård plast
Hård plast
Hård plast -prognose
Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen 16
Plastic Zero, www.plastic-zero.com
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Thank you for your attention!
Mette Skovgaard, [email protected]
Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen
