More waste treatment capacity in southern Sweden

Swedish Sydskånes avfallsaktiebolag, Sysav, processes- recycles, treats and combusts- 723,000 tonnes of waste a year.

This is more than a tonne per inhabitant of the 14 municipalities that together own the waste treatment and recycling factory. Growing needs and environmental legislation are spurring the company to increase its processing capacity. A loan from NIB is contributing to the financing of Sysav’s investments.

Sysav is set to invest SEK 1.2 billion (EUR 132 million) in its waste combustion plant Sjölunda in Malmö in southern Sweden. The investments will increase the present capacity of 400,000 tonnes of waste to 550,000 tonnes per year. The company expects Sjölunda’s annual energy output to increase by 33% to 150,000 MWh of electricity and 1,400,000 MWh of heating.

“The amount of nearly all kinds of waste, including burnable waste, is constantly growing. In order to achieve the best possible results applying appropriate waste treatment technologies, Sysav needs more combustion capacity for burnable waste. This is why Sysav is making this big investment,” says Frank Holmström, CFO at Sysav.

Sysav runs a heating plant and a combined power and heating plant, as well as plants for separation, recycling and recovery. From the entire amount of waste, Sysav separates material for recovery.

“If recovery is not possible, waste is used as raw material. And if this is not possible, then we use it in the production of energy,” Mr Holmström explains.

Municipalities are responsible for collecting the waste and currently all inhabitants can sort their waste into recyclable and other types of waste. Investments will also be made to increase the biological treatment of food waste in order to produce biogas for motor vehicles and biological fertilisers for agricultural use.

The new processing plant is expected to be launched in summer 2008. While it is under construction, food waste collected by Sysav is recycled in a neighbouring region. Once the company’s own facility is in operation, the amount of food waste collected annually is expected to reach 25,000 tonnes within the next few years.

This is in line with a national target of biologically treating at least 35% of food waste in Sweden by 2010. This project has also received state-funded support because it contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Sweden.

Today, Sysav takes care of 723,000 tonnes of household and industrial waste every year. Sysav also holds a long-term agreement with the power company E.ON, whereby Sysav can sell its total heat energy production to municipal district heating networks in southern Sweden.