On Amager, the waste company ARC is currently fine-tuning a new sorting facility that will in future handle residual waste from households in the municipalities of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg and TÃ¥rnby.
The sorting facility is the first of its kind in Denmark, and it can fish recyclable materials – plastic, metal, paper, cardboard and beverage cartons – out of the residual waste before it is sent for incineration.
Read also: New machine to catch what Copenhageners don’t sort in their waste (https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/ny-maskine-skal-samle-op-hvis-koebenhavnere-ikke-sorterer-deres-affald)
- We want to increase recycling. There are a lot of people in the three municipalities who live in apartments, and when it’s a long way to the bin, waste sorting is poorer, says Jacob H. Simonsen, CEO of ARC.
And according to an expert in waste and energy systems, a sorting facility is fundamentally a good idea.
- It is more efficient and cheaper than sorting the waste manually in the household, says Henrik Wenzel, professor at the Institute of Green Technology at the University of Southern Denmark.
This is what the sorting facility looks like. (Photo: © Christoffer Regild, ARC)
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A bad combination
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Now it might be tempting to think that residents in the three municipalities no longer need to sort their waste at home.
But that is not the plan. People must continue to sort their waste – just as they do today. The sorting facility is only meant to act as an extra safety net.
- When we sort the waste at home, it has a quality that is very suitable for recycling. The facility is a supplement that gets the last recyclable items out of the residual waste, says ARC’s CEO.
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> The facility is a good idea, so it is the sorting in households that should be reduced
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But Henrik Wenzel points out that people spend time on waste sorting, and in addition, collecting many different types of waste also costs money.
He therefore calls sorting in households followed by sorting at the facility a bad combination.
- It becomes far too expensive. The facility is a good idea, so it is the sorting in households that should be reduced.
Henrik Wenzel is a professor at the Institute of Green Technology at the University of Southern Denmark. (Photo: © Dennis Olsgaard, DR)
And here he is primarily looking at plastic and beverage cartons.
- They can advantageously be left in the residual waste, and then it can be handled automatically at the facility. That is both cheaper and better, says the professor.
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Not on the drawing board
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Henrik Wenzel hopes that the sorting facility on Amager can become the first step towards a new way of handling waste in Denmark.
- I am quite sure that eventually it will come to all municipalities. And then people will also realise that some sorting in households should be dropped.
However, that is not yet on the drawing board in the country’s capital.
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> No one wants people to sort just for the sake of sorting
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- It is not with the current technology, but I hope that with this sorting facility we can help develop the technology, says Line Barfod (EL), Copenhagen’s mayor for climate, environment and technology.
So she would like to see less waste sorting in Copenhagen homes at some point.
- Yes, no one wants people to sort just for the sake of sorting. But we want to recycle resources at the highest possible level, and I certainly hope the technology will get better and better, the mayor replies.
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