The United States continues to lag behind leading countries in pushing aggressive environmental programs to reduce pollutants and garbage. Two stories this week highlight the sharp and disappointing contrast. In Sweden, the government has made an incredible leap in reducing household garbage and appears close to attaining the impossible: a zero waste national objective for landfills. Currently, less than one percent of Sweden household garbage ends up in landfills. In the meantime, Germany (which continues to outstrip the U.S. on green policies while continuing strong economic growth) has announced that it will add one million electric cars on the road by 2030 and expects to drop greenhouse emissions from transportation by 26 percent by 2030 from 1990 levels.
Sweden has had astonishing success in reducing landfill waste which is notoriously bad for the environment from residual ground and air pollution as well as the failure to fully recycle trash. The Swedish government has pushed the concept of garbage as a commodity for recycling or fuel production. Swedish families now Produce just 461 kilograms of waste which is slightly below the half-ton European average, but the country does an amazing job in managing the trash.
One of the biggest reasons for the low level of landfill use is a law that I have often spoken about in some countries. In Sweden, producers are responsible for handling all costs related to collection and recycling or disposal of their products. This gives companies an incentive to reduce packaging and increase recycling.
As for Germany, we have previously discussed the incredible achievements of that country in alternative energy sources. Merkel’s government has now announced the plan to have the million electric cars on the road by 2020 and set the 26 percent drop as the goal. Germany is making these achievements while maintaining one of the strongest economies in the world.
These laws of course have the obvious value of not just reducing greenhouse gases but reducing pollution and improving public health. The garbage rules also force greater cost internalization for manufacturers rather than to allow them to simply externalize the costs of packaging and pollution.
Stockholm Syndrome
How Immigrants Are Changing Sweden’s Welfare State
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141437/ivar-ekman/stockholm-syndrome
Excerpt:
Over the past several decades, a stream of people from countries such as Bosnia, Iraq, and Somalia have taken advantage of Sweden’s asylum policies, the most generous in Europe. As a result, this once homogenous Nordic country has been utterly reshaped. In 2000, 11 percent of Sweden’s population was foreign-born. Today, the proportion is closer to 17 percent, higher than any comparable country in Europe — and higher also than the United States, where only 13 percent of the total population is foreign-born.
and from ONE of Elaine’s links….
and finally focuses on the interface between the political rhetoric of ‘integration’ and actual reality on the ground.
Immigrants behind boom in Sweden’s population
2/19/14
http://www.thelocal.se/20140219/swedens-population-booms-after-immigration-spike
Excerpt:
Sweden’s population on the last day of 2013 was 9,644,864 – a 0.93 percent hike from 2012. The total increase was the largest since 1946, and statisticians at Statistics Sweden (Statistiska centralbyrån – SCB) marked it down to a record-high level of immigration.
In total, 115,845 immigrants arrived in Sweden in 2013, many from Syria and Somalia. The figure is the highest Sweden has ever had in a one-year period. The men outnumbered the women by around 5,000.
I left links to articles about TWO different Swedish cities–as well as a link to a study about African immigrants in Sweden.
HHmmm… Funny…. I have NEVER met a Muslim who even considered telling me that I should convert…. I can’t say the same for the Christians I have met…. 😀
Funny is that I have also ALWAYS found Muslims to be rather open minded….
Of course that is because I have KNOWN Muslims PERSONALLY….
I did NOT get my info from the NEWS….
If Europeans got their info on American Christians from the News, they would think that ALL American Christians are like Westboro Baptist Church….
It is best to take what YOU hear on various Religions in the Media with a grain of Salt…. as it is the purpose of Media to blow things out of proportion, to make MONEY….
JAG, I did look it up. You’re just telling us you live in Sweden and throwing out numbers. Elaine is talking about Malmo. Again, all of Europe has a huge influx of African and ME immigrants. And, as DBQ pointed out, from Elaine’s link, they are causing huge problems. Do you doubt that?
Bill… Bill…. Bill…. LOL…. YOU read that racist piece on NORWAY….
Norway is NEXT to Sweden…..
and even if that was TRUE….. and it isn’t….
If 80% of the Muslims name their kid Mohammed…
BUT… Swedes use a lot of different names, Sven… Loke… Erik….
Then of course there will be a more popular name of Mohammed….
That does NOT mean that it is MOSTLY Muslims having babies….
and by the way… Mohammed is the most common name in the WORLD… 😀
Precisely so Justagurl.
JAG, The breakdown was ethnic. It was 90% Swedish Swedes, I think 4% Finnish Finns. That doesn’t include Turks w/ Swedish passports. It is ethnicity. I’m sure you have a growing Muslim population but Sweden is simply not even CLOSE to being as diverse as the US. Your living there is almost irrelevant. The numbers don’t lie, JAG. Now, I don’t doubt your assertion that most Swedes are atheists. That’s why I was careful to state “those who profess a faith.” As you know, Europe has eschewed religion, except for Muslims. They’ll be forcing it down your throat if you don’t watch out.
If you live in a dual area, it is up to the Citizens to convince the Government in that area, that this is what you want…
It can work… Of course it will NOT work the same as in the City… we also have dual areas, and it does NOT keep them from recycling…..
The Difference between the USA and Sweden is NOT the size, it is NOT the number of people….
It is the MENTALITY…..
Do you care about the Environment ???
Or don’t you ???
It is that simple…..
It is the Mentality….
Nico – your figures are way out of date. More and more Swedes believe the country is losing its national identity, due to the huge influx of Middle Easterners. The most common name for newborn males thee is “Mohammed”.
Annie… Max … I see what you both mean… 😀
And I never said it won’t work in the US either. You just need to model the programs so that they will work for the various geographical challenges and the various populations. Urban and rural.
What works in Sweden may not work in the US. How is this controversial?
Darren
Lol… A no harms race.
That makes any “Cold War” technically a hot desert storm.
Oh sorry, the Pentagon already used that term. Do they recycle?
By the way…. I did point out that the EU as a whole is larger and has a population larger than the USA and just as culturally diverse….
and the EU as a WHOLE is tackling Pollution, Climate… Emissions….
So, to say that this won’t work in the USA, because of geographical or population size is just an UNREASONABLE excuse….
If the EU can do it, so can the USA….
YOU just have to WANT IT…..
Justagurl, I’ve noticed that it’s commonplace for some people to seem to think everyone here has amnesia and won’t remember what was said on a different thread just the day before. o_O
Justagurl
Some people live in a bubble of fungible facts…
… One day it’s up next day it’s graviry’s fault.
Malmö gets LOTS of tourism…
and Elaine is correct… we have a LARGE Muslim population, if I recall correctly, the same as the USA 12% … …
as well as a VERY large South and Central American population….
Yes, it is 85% Swedes….LOL
Swedish TURKS…. Swedish Jews… Swedish Ethiopians….
and a LOT of Swedish Thai ….. along with other Asians.
Swede just means the PASSPORT is Swedish….
It does NOT mean the color of the skin or the original nationality…. 😀
Sweden is just as Racially DIVERSE as The USA…..
and if you had EVER set foot in Sweden…. YOU would know this… 😀
on a Side NOTE.. for Nick…. Swedes are OVER 60% Atheist…. 😀
I think that number is higher, I was using a low percentage to be on the safe side….
My point of ALL of this is…. Before YOU go claiming a country is Homogenous…. LOOK it up….. It is NOT that hard to Google this…
and it will keep people from looking lie they don’t know what they are talking about…..
and the IRONY is…. on a thread about Shariah Police in Germany, people were claiming that Muslims have overrun Europe….. Then today claim those same countries are Homogenous…. LOL
Come on people…. YOU can’t go making contradictory claims like this…. It just looks uninformed….
“Linking is far more intelligent than making claims and not providing evidence to back it up”
Linking is a good thing, unless it sends your comment to the spam box for a time out. However, linking without any commentary is confusing since it leaves the reader uncertain as to what point is being made.
For instance the link to the Malmo story. Is it Elaine’s point that the immigration to Malmo is a bad thing. Excerpt : “But despite Malmö’s usually placid appearance, this experiment in multiculturalism has not gone well. In the Rosengaard section of Malmö, a housing project made up primarily of immigrants, fire and emergency workers will no longer enter without police protection.
Unemployment in Rosengaard is reported to be 70 percent. An immigrant-fueled crime wave affects one of every three Malmö families each year. The number of rapes has tripled in 20 years.”
I’m also unsure as to what point the link leading to the African immigrants in Sweden is supposed to be making in the context of recycling garbage.
Agreed with chimine and said before in one of my posts, the recyclables need to be cleaned up first if you are going to store them otherwise you get vermin and predators. Since we don’t have anyplace to recycle. They just get thrown away as often as we can with the rest of the garbage. What is a “roll can”?
AY
Hear hear!!