Abdullah Maghram
Al-Riyadh
Norway imports waste from Sweden, Ireland and England because it does not have enough waste to recycle and use for generating energy. It imports 800,000 tons of waste from Sweden and 45,000 tons from England and does not pay anything for it. On the contrary, the waste-exporting countries ship waste for free because it is less expensive to ship it to Norway than to dispose of it.
In fact, Norway is not the only country that uses waste to generate energy; the United States generates 11 percent of its domestic needs from waste while Sweden generates 32 percent in this way. In Europe, there are over 420 factories generating energy from waste and meeting the energy needs of 20 million people.
Four tons of recycled waste can produce a ton of energy. In Oslo, Norway’s capital, energy and heating are generated from waste to cover the needs of 56,000 homes and 144 buses. It is expected that the waste recycling market will grow over the next few years. Some countries have reported success in producing energy in this way while others, like Japan and Australia, have had modest success but are still trying to make it work. The State of Western Australia has produced energy from waste for 21,000 homes.
At the global level, the waste recycling market is expected to generate SR107 billion next year. Seeing the increasing growth of the market, scientists have invented different energy-producing devices that can be used at home to generate energy from waste.
Recycling waste to generate energy is just one of many examples that we should utilize. There are other types of waste recycling that are as important; for example, the recycling of electronic devices. In Europe alone, SR10 billion is generated from recycling electronic devices. We can generate hundreds of millions from recycling drinking bottles. There are several options; we just need to select the best one for us.
