At the annual Housing Fair, held in Naantali, Finland this year, the latest trends in housing are presented during the summer. The residential area where housing fair is held, is also pioneering in recycling household waste.
Residents of the area bring their waste to a centralized waste collection point. It is used by about fifty households in the area, and the residents are committed to using a common collection point. Bio, plastic, cardboard, paper, small metal and glass waste generated in households are sorted and recycled at the waste collection point.
The advantage of this model, in addition to the ease of use, is that using a centralized waste collection point is more affordable for residents than using the waste bins on their own property. There is also no need to arrange space for waste bins on residents’ own yards.
The centralized waste collection point also reduces traffic on residential streets in the area. Thus, the carbon footprint of waste management is reduced. It also brings safety to the streets that the garbage truck only goes to one point.
The waste bins at the waste collection point in the area are locked and can be opened with apartment-specific electronic keys. The use of waste bins can be monitored remotely, so it is possible to monitor how much the residents use these bins.
In the future, the goal of this model is to develop the waste collection point in such a way that the waste bins could weigh the waste brought by the resident or collect data on the amount of waste brought by the resident in some other way. In the long term, the goal is for residents also to be able to influence the amount of their own waste fee. The more you sort your waste, the cheaper it gets.
You can read more about the topic in YLE’s article (in Finnish)
