Here’s how one town manages to send nothing to the landfill

Most of us need to make a better effort when it comes to caring for creation, and it’s always great to see how different countries are playing their part. One town in Sweden is leading the way by showing us how garbage can be put to good use.

In Eskilstuna, a town with nearly 68,000 inhabitants, thanks to a rainbow refuse system the town is sending zero rubbish to landfill, as the BBC video below demonstrates. Because nearly all of the Swedish town’s residents signed up to a seven-color-coded recycling system, over half of the town’s waste is being recycled — already ahead of the EU’s 50% target for 2020.

The system means that homes have six colorful bags that separate metal, food, plastics, textiles, cartons, and newspapers, and then a white bag for rubbish, such as diapers and items that can’t be recycled.

At the recycling plant the bags are automatically sorted into different metal containers thanks to their vivid colors. The green bags containing food waste are converted into slurry that creates bio-gas used to fuel the town’s buses.

The other bags are compacted and recycled according to their materials and the plastic bags themselves are also recycled. There are further benefits, too: This kind of recycling necessitates just one garbage collection every few days, which means fewer traffic jams and less pollution and noise.

The only downside of the system is that rubbish that can’t be recycled is burned, and although this is used to create energy, it does mean that further greenhouse gases are omitted into the atmosphere. The overall benefits of the rainbow recycling, however, are proof that with a little effort — and some impressive engineering — we can all do our part in caring for God’s beautiful gifts.

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