In the Scandinavian countries of Norway and Sweden, garbage is a precious commodity. That’s because it is used to generate heat/electricity. And in the case of Norway’s capital, Oslo, there is a problem: the city doesn’t have enough garbage to burn:
Oslo, a recycling-friendly place where roughly half the city and most of its schools are heated by burning garbage — household trash, industrial waste, even toxic and dangerous waste from hospitals and drug arrests — has a problem: it has literally run out of garbage to burn.
Part of the success has to do with the meticulousness of the citizens sorting the garbage:
Garbage may be, well, garbage in some parts of the world, but in Oslo it is very high-tech. Households separate their garbage, putting food waste in green plastic bags, plastics in blue bags and glass elsewhere. The bags are handed out free at groceries and other stores.
How difficult would it be to ship some of America’s garbage across the Atlantic Ocean to Norway?