Sweden recycles 99% of garbage?

It feels like Canada may be a leader when it comes to recycling. Canada’s environmental priorities are

Theme I. Addressing Climate Change and Air Quality;
Theme II. Maintaining Water Quality and Availability;
Theme III. Protecting Nature and Canadians; and
Theme IV. Shrinking the Environmental Footprint – Beginning with Government.

It turns out there’s a country that may be doing a little more. According to an article published by HuffingtonPost, Sweden recycles 99% of their garbage.
“At the core of Sweden’s program is its waste-management hierarchy designed to curb environmental harm: prevention (reduce), reuse, recycling, recycling alternatives (energy recovery via WTE plants), and lastly, disposal (landfill).

Before garbage can be trucked away to incinerator plants, trash is filtered by home and business owners; organic waste is separated, paper picked from recycling bins, and any objects that can be salvaged and reused pulled aside.

By Swedish law, producers are responsible for handling all costs related to collection and recycling or disposal of their products. If a beverage company sells bottles of pop at stores, the financial onus is on them to pay for bottle collection as well as related recycling or disposal costs.
Rules introduced in the 1990s incentivized companies to take a more proactive, eco-conscious role about what products they take to market. It was also a clever way to alleviate taxpayers of full waste management costs.

According to data collected from Swedish recycling company Returpack, Swedes collectively return 1.5 billion bottles and cans annually. What can’t be reused or recycled usually heads to WTE incineration plants.”

To read more and/or watch video click here http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/09/02/sweden-recycling_n_5738602.html