Thursday, September 11, 2008

ORAS

I got to tour a recycling center north of Oslo, called ORAS (with a slash through the "O").  It stands for Ovre Romerike Avfallsselskap IKS.  Their main drop-off spot is a great big circle, filled with well-marked dumpsters below.  In 2007, 59,700 cars dropped off their recycling.

While most residents are well-intentioned, they sometimes mess it up.  Here is Shanna, saying, "These items are not paper!"

Our amazingly polite guide (especially given our late arrival), Arild Snekkerhaugen, actually jumped in the paper dumpster and pulled out a box.  It was stuffed with plastic bags and an electronic cord.  He said that people have trouble separating materials.  The center requires constant supervision.
This is another shot of the circle of dumpsters.  If you click on it, you can see the signs that go around the circle.
We then walked over to Oras' cutting edge composting facility, which is slated to open test operations in two weeks.  It is Norway's first commercial composter with technology developed in Finland.  I was really surprised to learn this; I was under the impression that Norway had a very advanced composting system.  What I have heard thus far is that most of the organic waste in Norway currently goes to waste-to-energy plants.

The composting tubes (pictured below) are big and yellow.  Organic material is fed in one end, heated up to 70 degrees Celsius, and comes out the other end after 12 days.  They then spread the composted material out to cure for 60 days.
Thank you, Arild!  Best of luck as you continue to expand your operations.

2 comments:

.i'll never tell. said...

meredith, you're amazing. you don't waste any time!

Jennie and Nate Card said...

Sounds like your trip has been amazing so far. I loved the tour of the recycling facility. I could see loving it as part of the honeymoon ;)