How can Finland’s waste management respond to increasing demands posed by the circular economy? How can the University of Eastern Finland be involved in developing waste management in Nigeria? These issues were discussed during a wintertime visit to the Jätekukko waste sorting station in Kuopio.
“In Nigeria, all recyclable waste continues to be sold abroad,” noted Dr Iniobong John, who was on an Erasmus visit to Finland from the University of Lagos in Nigeria.
“The goal is to end this, so that waste materials could be used domestically.”
The main problem Nigeria is facing is a lack waste management operators: there is a need to get more companies involved in waste management, and their activities should be guided by legislation.
The University of Lagos has been experimenting with recycling, but not with very promising results. The problem was not with people’s attitudes or their unwillingness to sort trash into different containers, but with the containers later being emptied into the same garbage truck at the university.
“This, of course, had an impact on people’s motivation to recycle. Hopefully, we will soon be able to start collecting plastic bottles, for example,” John said.
Back home in Nigeria, John is exploring the possibilities of the circular economy, focusing especially on the adequacy of water resources in Africa, as well as on water purification and water reuse. She is well networked with researchers based in South Africa in, e.g., projects that promote business opportunities for the circular economy in Africa.
Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland are involved in the development of waste management through participation in the Finland-Lagos Recycling Culture Research & Development Project (FLR-CRD). The project explores the country’s diverse recycling methods and designs efficient circular economy solutions. The project is funded by the Finland Africa Platform for Innovation, which is an international network of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.
“Our research project explores how Finnish companies and expert organisations could use their know-how and resources to promote the circular economy. However, progress is slow due to a lack of capital and suitable operators, among other things,” said Research Director Pertti Pasanen of the Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland.
An old hill of waste is now producing energy
In Finland, a variety of waste collection and recycling methods have been developed in recent years, and Jätekukko, for example, collects 1.8 million bins of household waste every year. In Nigeria’s developing economy, however, the amount of waste is of a completely different magnitude. People want to consume, which of course leads to more waste.
“In Finland, the quality of waste is perhaps slightly different: for example, a lot of glass and stone wool is used for insulating houses here. These materials cannot be composted, so they must be recycled in other ways,” said Jätekukko’s Operations Manager Pekka Hyvärinen.
The Jätekukko waste sorting station in Kuopio has a 30-year-old, soil-covered hill of waste which spans 13 hectares and contains other non-biodegradable waste as well, such as PVC plastic. That cannot be burned for energy because it contains chlorine, which forms hydrogen chloride and corrosive hydrochloric acid when burned.
However, the old hill of waste is still useful.
“We collect significant amounts of gas from within the hill for district heating,” Hyvärinen said.
Finland will need to further intensify its collection and recycling of waste in the future, as the amount of especially packaging materials and, for example, plastics used in agriculture, is large.
“We should also increase our reuse of soil materials, such as gravel, in construction,” Hyvärinen noted.
“Many drivers, including legislation, as well as changes in people’s and other operators’ activities, are pushing towards more efficient use of materials. In addition, carbon footprint calculations, depletion of available nutrients, and challenges posed by long, complex supply chains are prompting the development of new operations. Waste materials must be made more and better use of. The right kind of frugality creates room for new innovations.”
