This is a wonderful example of an extremely important fact: when it comes to environmental sustainability, one size doesn’t fit all. There are places that have huge issues with municipal solid waste: land use, odor, and disease–that are desperate for waste-to-energy technology. Sweden simply happens to be one in which these factors do not exist; their technology for processing MSW is so effective that they’ve run out of trash.
In fact, this points to an important concept: exporting technology. What Sweden has developed, the equivalent of carrying coals to Newcastle, is in incredible demand in dozens of cities in Asia. The human culture that has evolved thus far on Earth, i.e., 200+ sovereign nations that are generally more hostile to than cooperative with one another, has left our civilization with an uphill battle when it comes to environmental sustainability.
Not too late to turn this around.
