Expert says new waste plant could cut household sorting

A new waste-sorting plant on Amager could allow households to sort less, but for now it is planned as a supplement to home sorting, DR reports.

Waste company ARC is fine-tuning the plant, which will handle residual waste from households in Copenhagen, Frederiksberg and Tårnby. The first facility of its kind in Denmark, it is designed to recover plastic, metal, paper, cardboard and food and drink cartons before the remaining waste is sent for incineration.

ARC director Jacob H. Simonsen said the plant could improve recycling, particularly because many people in the three municipalities live in apartments and sorting tends to be poorer when rubbish bins are far away.

Henrik Wenzel, a professor at the University of Southern Denmark’s Institute for Green Technology, said automated sorting is more efficient and cheaper than sorting waste by hand at home. He argued that doing both is too costly, and that plastic and food and drink cartons could instead be left in residual waste for the plant to separate.

That change is not currently planned in Copenhagen. Climate, environment and technical affairs mayor Line Barfod said the city hopes the plant will help develop the technology. She said the goal is to recycle resources as much as possible, not to have people sort waste unnecessarily.