The Danish-Greenlandic Environmental Cooperation
From garbage dump to modern refuse management
Garbage has always been a big problem in Greenland. Now, a waste management scheme has been formulated. The keywords are incineration, removal and landfilling.
Even though there are no roads between Greenlandic towns, there are a substantial number of vehicles that end up in dumps, partly from building and construction.
"Among other things, we now have a new waste incineration plant, which means that we no longer have to landfill flammable waste, but can burn it and get heat from garbage." Jesper Møller, engineer for the Sisimiut (Holsteinsborg) Municipality, cannot quite hide his pride, and personally, I understand why. Two years ago, I stood in exactly the same spot at the garbage dump. But where I then saw a mountain of rubbish up to two meters high covering a couple hundred square meters, there is now a flat area with a ditch. We will get back to the ditch later. That garbage has all been burnt in the city's brand new waste incineration plant. All that is left now are ten Big Bags of fly ash on pallets. We will also get back to the fly ash.
For many years, there seemed to be no solution to the problem of waste disposal in Greenlandic towns and villages. Since the mid-90s, however, the Home Rule Government of Greenland has worked determinedly to improve the situation, and in 1996, with support from Dancea, the consultancy Carl Bro, Inc. drew up a general waste management scheme for Greenland. The Greenlandic Parliament took note of the main principles of the scheme, and much has happened since. The Home Rule Government earmarked funds for the municipal waste disposal sector, and Dancea has supported a number of municipal projects.
The money has been used for the new waste incineration plant in Sisimiut, among other things. Here, construction waste is mixed with household waste into a homogeneous mass, so that it will burn evenly. The plant is computer controlled, and manned by one person, who sits surrounded by video screens that show the central sections of the plant. One display looks like a glimpse through the gates of hell.
An enormous electronic filter cleans the smoke, in order to meet the environmental standards set by the Ministry of Environment and Nature. For the time being, slag and fly ash, with its heavy metal content, are landfilled.
Lead and especially copper contents are considerably higher than in similar plants in Denmark. I ask why. "Our garbage sorting is not good enough yet. For one thing, we need to separate out electronic waste and low-energy light bulbs, and so on," answers Jesper Møller, who estimates that the amount of garbage per person in Greenland is the same as it is in Denmark. Disposable culture is just as bad in Greenland as in Denmark.
Environmentally hazardous wasteIn order to reduce the most damaging kinds of waste, the plan is to set up a fully modern delivery site for hazardous waste. It will require sorting, which there is no tradition for at all in Greenland. In cooperation with the Home Rule Government, plans have been made for an information campaign on garbage sorting.
But what will happen to the fly ash? The Ministry of Environment and Nature is investigating different possibilities. The most likely solution is landfilling the fly ash in a safe place in Greenland.
A recent thesis from the Technical University of Denmark looked at whether the waste deposition site could be in Sisimiut. A valley near the Sisimiut incineration plant was studied. The valley is outside the catchment area for the water supply lakes. The bedrock is covered with sand and gravel. The project recommends setting up a deposition site for slag and fly ash if other ways of using them cannot be found. Landfilling is the last resort for substances that have become so concentrated that they cannot enter the cycles of the earth.
Even the harsh Greenlandic climate does not remove all traces.
District heating, pleaseAt the back of the garbage disposal plant there are twelve fans that send heat directly out to the snow buntings. Jesper Møller is clearly irritated by this. "As it is now, we only use twenty-five percent of the heat that we produce burning garbage. The heat is put into the city's district heating system. The first thing on my wish list is expanding the district heating grid," says Jesper Møller.
This would, however, be a costly affair. One meter of transmission line costs 5,700 crowns (c. 700 US dollars).
And now, back to the ditch. During my earlier visit, I spoke with Professor Arne Villumsen from the Technical University of Denmark about how heavy metals leach down through the layers of soil under the garbage dump. At that time, the front of heavy metals was being charted as it slowly but surely approached the sea. Now that part of the dump has been cleared away, a ditch has been dug to lead water directly out to sea. Heavy metals from the sins of old are still moving toward the sea, but not, as they once were, at higher and higher concentrations.
In coming years, all Greenlandic towns will have waste incineration plants.
The plant in Sisimiut is not unique. Three of the big cities have incineration plants. In Nuuk (Godthåb), the incineration plant has been running for twelve years, in Qaqortoq (Julianehåb), for three. Similar plants are planned for Aasiaat (Egedesminde), Maniitsoq (Sukkertoppen) and Ilulissat (Jakobshavn). Within a few years, there will be incineration plants in all the larger towns.
Incineration first
In the central square in Nuuk, right next to the big new arts center, Katauq, the National Association of Local Authorities in Greenland (KANUKOKA) is located. Jens Romerdahl is a senior technical, environmental and housing consultant. He helped Martha Labansen, head of the project, with waste management planning for Greenland.
"The strategy comes from the action plan that Home Rule put into effect in 1996," says Jens Romerdahl. "The first point of endeavor was the establishment of waste incineration plants in order to remove the bulkiest garbage." Paper and oil wastes improve combustion. "We burn as much as possible for the benefit of heat production in Greenland instead of sailing it over the Atlantic," says Jens Romerdahl.
The next step will be to do something about environmentally hazardous waste. For some years, all the municipalities have, delivered dangerous waste, like cars and chemicals, to MOKANA, a company in Aalborg.
Fly ash and slag are not sailed to Denmark. "I imagine that slag can be used for road construction in places where melt water does not run over the road. The fly ash will probably be landfilled," says Jens Romerdahl.
Garbage dumps used to be full of oil drums. This is the dump in Qeqertarsuaq (Godhavn) in 1991. Stores of oil barrels left by expeditions in remote regions are a special problem.
Valuing the environmentDoes environmental assistance make a difference? "Yes," answers Jens Romerdahl firmly. "A incineration plant in Sisimiut, for example, costs 25-30 million crowns (c. 3 million US dollars). The Home Rule Government and the municipalities share the financing equally. A grant of a few million from the Danish state to the municipal share can mean that the decision will go the right way."
In Denmark, more than five percent of the national income is used for cleaner air, wastewater, garbage and other environmental interventions.
Also with respect to the garbage, Greenland is coming to resemble the other part of the Realm more and more.
