Waste management in Copenhagen: Principles and trends

Abstract

The increase in volumes of waste, and the difficulties of finding suitable locations for landfill sites within the borders of Copenhagen municipality, along with the need for treatment of oil and chemical waste, resulted in the erection in the early 1970s of two large waste-to-energy plants and a large centralized plant for the treatment of oil and chemical waste. Ten years later, however, it became evident that the then structure was not sufficient to face rapidly emerging problems. A number of pollution cases in Denmark which emerged during the early 1980s, proved that oil and chemical waste was being transported illegally to landfills instead of being disposed of in compliance with the obligatory system, thus becoming a threat to groundwater and drinking water supplies in Copenhagen. At the same time, waste-to-energy plants were facing pollution problems such as the emission of dioxin and large quantities of hydrochloric acid, which contribute to acidification and forest death. As a response to the increasing problems in relation to both waste incineration and deposits, new regulations from the Ministry of the Environment allowed future sanitary landfills to be located only near the coast or in areas documented to be composed of an impermeable layer of clay. New regulation also defined conditions for flue gas cleansing. However, it was clear that pollution problems combined with increases in volumes of waste called for a much firmer administration and a stronger influence on the waste flow. From February 1989 the municipalities have undertaken the obligation to assign all waste producers the means to dispose of their waste. How Copenhagen municipality has solved the problems is discussed.