mangement of global waste in finland
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5Wastes are all objects or substances which the holder discards, intends to discard, or is legally obliged to discard. Wastes represent an inef-ficient use of raw materials and, therefore, a loss of resources. Moreover, wastes can con-tain dangerous substances or have hazardous properties and can consequently pollute the environment and cause health hazards. Also the waste recovery and processing operations can produce emissions. (Finnish Environment Institute 2011a) Until the end of the 19th century, Finland was rural and the cities were very small. The amount of waste was also low because almost everything was effectively recycled. Notwith-standing, even then waste spoiled the water in wells and caused diseases. Before the 1970s, waste management in Finland was mainly con-sidered a health issue and, hence, connected with the development of general healthcare regulation. (Nygård 2000). In the early 1980s, waste management became more focused on environmental protection and was administra-tively separated from public sanitation. (Tur-1 Introductionpeinen 2005). At the moment, waste reduc-tion is the primary aim of waste management. (Sokka et al. 2007)Municipal solid waste (MSW) usually means all the mixed waste (e.g. kitchen waste, packag-ing materials, glassware, tin cans) which are handled in the municipal waste management system. Municipal solid waste is produced in households, trade, industries, construction and public and private institutes. Some part of municipal waste is composted, recycled or otherwise recovered as material, some of the waste is incinerated or gasified and the rest is landfilled. (Sokka et al. 2007) When think-ing of saving of non-renewable resources, the recovering the waste as material or energy is particularly important. (Finnish Environment Institute 2011a).This research was conducted as a part of the “Green cities and settlements” (GREENSETT-LE) ENPI CBC project financed by the Euro-pean Union, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Finland.
113 Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) in FinlandAccording to statistics, the amounts of waste in Finland are increasing. In 2004, the amount of waste was about 66 million tonnes (excluding manure used in agriculture and logging waste left in the forest), in 2007, about 74 million tonnes (Suomen ympäristökeskus 2012), in 2008, about 80 million tonnes (HE 199/2010) and, in 2009, almost 85 million tonnes (Suomen virallinen tilasto 2011a). Most of the waste is produced in the construction, mining and quarrying sec-tor (Figure 3). The majority of the construction waste is mineral waste whereas the mining and quarrying sector generates mostly waste stone, ore dressing sand and excess soil. (Finnish Envi-ronment Institute 2011e)Figure 3. Amounts of waste by sector (million tonnes) in 2010. (Suomen virallinen tilasto 2012)The key driver for the increased production of municipal solid waste (MSW) was urbanization and fast growth in gross domestic product af-ter the wars (Turpeinen, 1995). In the 1950s, 370 000 inhabitants of Helsinki produced 320 000 cubic metre of MSW to landfills per year. The increase in the amount of MSW was faster than the growth of population. In 1963, it was estimated that, during the preceding 15 years, the amount of inhabitants in Helsinki increased 1,32-fold, whereas the amount of MSW has in-creased 2,35-fold (Nygård 2000). Figure 4. (a) MSW generation (kg/person/year) in Finland between 1960 and 2002 and (b) total MSW in Finland (100/year). (Sokka et al. 2007)The amount of MSW per person increased 4-fold and total MSW production 5-fold from 1960 to 1990 (Figures 4a and 4b). However, it is estimated that the produced amount of munici-pal waste was 200kg per inhabitant in the 1960s and 400kg per inhabitants.