Waste management in

Copenhagen

Mette Skovgaard

Sustainability Unit

City of Copenhagen, Denmark

Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen 2

• Introduction to the City of Copenhagen

• Principles & division of responsibilities

• Collection and treatment waste

• Results

• Waste and Resource Management Plan

2018

Outline of presentation

Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen 3

Facts about Copenhagen

• Capital of Denmark

• 88 km2

• 570,000 inhabitants

• 297,000 households

• 90% living in apartments

• Annual increase in population

of about 10,000

• 355,000 workplaces

• 30,000 enterprises

• Waste (2010): 821,000 tonnes

Photo: Ursula Bach

• Waste driven to dumpsites

• Population growth

• Rapid economic growth

• Increasing amount of waste

• Lack of capacity

• Growing environmental

awareness: Groundwater

• NIMBY

• Something had to be done

Up until the 1960s: Dumpsites

4

• In 1970, two incineration plants were

opened in the vicinity of Copenhagen

• Managed and operated by inter-

municipal entities

• Amagerforbrænding in the east of

Copenhagen

• Vestforbrænding just north-west of

Copenhagen

• Reduced health hazards and used

the waste as a source for heat and

electricity

• Connected to an extensive district

heating system

Instead of dumpsites - Incineration

5

Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen 6

Responsibilities

• Statutory order on waste

• Recyclable waste from industry and commerce (market driven)

• Data collection

• Register for waste transporters and treatment facilities for recyclable waste

National (Danish Environmental Protection Agency)

• Local regulation

• All aspects of household waste, incl. packaging waste

• Assignment of waste for incineration and landfilling from commerce and industry

• Classification of waste

• Inspections of waste producers and treatment facilities

• Ownership of incineration plants and landfills

• Waste planning

Municipalities

Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen 7

Principles for Danish Waste

Management System

• Waste hierarchy

• Source separation

• National taxes on treatment (since 1987)

• Recycling 0 EUR

• Incineration ~45 EUR

• Landfill 63 EUR

• Ban on landfill of organic waste (since 1997)

• Waste fees not part of tax system

• Municipal waste budget has to balance over a period of time

Collection of household waste in Copenhagen

From 2009-2011, the City of Copenhagen has

undergone tendering of household waste

• Previously collected by private foundation

since 1898

• Tendering of collection of waste

• Tendering in city districts

• Tendering in special waste fractions

• Recyclable waste sold by the municipality at

market value

Collection and treatment of

commerce and industrial waste • Waste producers find own transporter for

collection of waste

• Transporter or waste producer find

treatment facility for recyclable waste

Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen 8

Copenhagen Waste Management System 9

Collection of waste from households

• Collection schemes

• Collect- and bring schemes

• Proximity principle

• Easy and logical

• Source separation

• City responsible for all

household waste

• 5 recycling centres

6 small recycling centres

• Receive 30 fractions of waste

(12 on small)

• Free of charge (per visit) - fee paid

on an annual basis

• Residual waste

• Paper

• Cardboard

• Rigid plastic

• Metal

• “Small electronics”

• Batteries

• Bulky waste

• WEEE

• Garden waste

• Hazardous waste

• Glass (bring

banks)

• Recycling centres

1

0

From landfilling to incineration to recycling: results

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1988 1992 1994 1999 2004 2006 2010

Landfill Incineration Recycling

11

• Total: 808,000 tonnes

• Recycling 59%, Incineration 38%, Landfilling 2%, Special treatment 1%

Waste production in 2012

-

50.000

100.000

150.000

200.000

250.000

300.000

350.000

400.000

Household Commercial C&D

Recycling Incineration Landfilling Special Treatment

• Change from incineration to recycling

• Focus on green growth and resource efficiency

Target in 2018

• 20 % reduction in waste to incineration

• From 324,000 tonnes in 2010 to 260,000

tonnes in 2018

• 45 % of household waste to recycling

• From 55,000 tonnes in 2010 to 100,000

tonnes in 2018

• Plan came into force 1 January 2013

Resource- and Waste Management Plan 2018

Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen

New collection system for rigid plastic, metal and electronics

The figures

• 23 000 waste containers

• 7 800 collection sites

• Approximately 240 000 households

• 450 000 inhabitants

The new collection system

• 3 containers (metal, WEEE and rigid plastic)

• Residual household waste containers removed

• Collection frequency – once every 4th week, fixed, if people need more additional volume is added in stead

• 3 chamber waste collection trucks – means people are only “disturbed” once

Picture by Ursula Bach

Information campaign

“Recycling is gold”

• Caretaker events • Events held, visited by 390 caretakers. Positive response

• Letter to households with sorting guide and stickers • 190 600 distributed so far, sent to the households the week before implementation

• 50% remembers having received the material. 70% of these have briefly read it, 50% have saved the material

• Events near public venues • 7 events so far, 150-300 visitors per event

• The campaign is a success • 84% remembers noticing it, our goal was 55%

• Keeping the momentum • News letters, sorting award, addressing the youth

• Advertising in movie theatres Picture by Ursula Bach

Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen 15

Collected rigid plastic waste per month, tonnes: collected (bars) and forecast (dotted line)

0,0

10,0

20,0

30,0

40,0

50,0

60,0

70,0

80,0

90,0

100,0

okt

-12

no

v-1

2d

ec-1

2ja

n-1

3fe

b-1

3m

ar-1

3ap

r-1

3m

aj-1

3ju

ni-

13

juli-

14

aug-

13

sep

-13

okt

-13

no

v-1

3d

ec-1

3ja

n-1

4fe

b-1

4m

ar-1

4ap

r-1

4m

aj-1

4ju

ni-

14

juli-

15

aug-

14

sep

-14

okt

-14

no

v-1

4d

ec-1

4ja

n-1

5fe

b-1

5m

ar-1

5ap

r-1

5m

aj-1

5ju

ni-

15

juli-

16

aug-

15

sep

-15

okt

-15

no

v-1

5d

ec-1

5

Ton

Indsamlede mængder pr. måned: Hård plast

Hård plast

Hård plast -prognose

Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen 16

Plastic Zero, www.plastic-zero.com

17

Thank you for your attention!

Mette Skovgaard, mette.skovgaard@tmf.kk.dk

Waste collection and recycling in Copenhagen