The recovery rate of 99 % consists of the parts of waste recycled as raw materials and waste directed for energy utilisation. Besides the municipal waste received by Päijät-Häme Waste Management Ltd, this number also includes packaging waste and paper recycled at the Rinki eco take-back points and premises, WEEE-waste (waste electrical and electronic equipment) recycled at points provided by the manufacturer, an estimation of the amount of organic household waste as well as commercial organic waste directly received by LABIO Ltd, which doesn’t move through PHJ.
Recycling is further developed – waste sorting in households is important
The Lahti area wants to ambitiously further develop the good work of recovering waste, especially when it comes to the recycling of materials. The recycling rate has increased by 3 % from 2018.
– Finland’s recycling targets are strict and the recycling rate for municipal waste must be at least 55 % by 2025 and 65 % by 2035,” says Johanna Rusanen, Managing Director of PHJ. Päijät-Häme Waste Management Ltd actively continues working towards these objectives.
– When increasing recycling, the sorting of waste made by households is essential because that ensures the cleanest materials in the circulation. Waste sorting by facilities complements household source recovery, and we continue developing it further, Rusanen adds.
The waste management company continuously conducts active recycling guidance and information work.
Päijät-Hämeen Jäte Oy is participating in a development project that advances the separate recycling of textile waste in cooperation with other waste facilities in Finland. The aim of the project is to investigate how the recycling of textile waste could be the most profitable and organised the most effectively. Textile waste must be collected separately from other waste starting 2025 at the latest, but Finland is trying to do so a couple of years earlier.
Päijät-Häme is Finland’s pioneer in plastic recycling
– Last year we directed over a million kilos of plastic retrieved from energy waste for recycling. This year, the amount of recycled plastic will increase to 2 million kilos. Per resident in one operational area we receive 10 kilos of plastic for recycling. Nationally, this figure is significantly smaller, says Rusanen.
The Green Capital of 2021 has worked a long time to develop its waste management. The area’s waste management solutions are of international interest, and recycling has created a lot of business in the city. Lahti is a pioneer in the circular economy, and this can be seen as enthusiastic sorting in the everyday life of the Lahti people. The citizens were already sorting waste in the 1990s, while elsewhere mainly the tactic of only one garbage bag was known.
Further information:
Waste reclamation
Johanna Rusanen
Managing Director at PHJ
Tel. +358 40 087 7254
johanna.rusanen@phj.fi
Lahti – European Green Capital 2021
Milla Bruneau
Executive Director
tel. +358 400 408 951
milla.bruneau@lahti.fi