Brief Review

Waste Disposal & Recycling

As of January 2000, all non-recyclable, combustible waste must be incinerated in Switzerland. Due to advanced technological improvements, the burning of waste by incineration facilities produces only minimal air pollutants. In addition, these facilities generate enough electricity to power 250.000 homes.

Landfills are now used solely for the disposal of non-burnable waste. There are three separate categories of landfill in Switzerland. The one for inert materials requires the least monitoring and is for things such as construction waste that do not issue toxic chemicals into the environment. The landfill for stabilised residues is what is left over after incineration, which can include harmful heavy metals, but which do not release gases or water-soluble toxins. The last is the bioactive landfill for waste that emits harmful gases or could contaminate groundwater. This type requires the greatest monitoring.

In the past, hazardous wastes were not disposed of properly and there is now a list of 4000 sites that are considered contaminated. The goal is to clean these all up by 2025. State-of-the-art incinerators of hazardous waste were put into service in 1994, making it possible to dispose of all non-recyclable hazardous wastes generated throughout the country.

The Swiss are obsessive about recycling. In many cantons, households are charged based upon the volume of trash they put out to be collected, whereas to recycle is free. At 50 percent of the amount of household waste recycled, they are the leader in recycling in Europe. Nearly everything is recyclable, including paper, carton, glass, plastic, cans, textiles, oils of various kinds, and cooking fat.