Cities Use Underground Pipes for Trash to Reduce Garbage Truck Traffic by Up to 90 Percent
In some Northern European cities, particularly in Sweden, waste is transported through underground vacuum pipes rather than by truck. Trash bags dropped off in buildings travel at speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour to central collection stations.
Here’s how it works...
Trash is disposed of through openings inside or next to the building.
Waste chutes can be installed on every floor or in the entrance hall. Alternatively, separate inlets for each type of waste can be placed just outside the building.
Discarded bags collect in a vertical shaft beneath each inlet. A single inlet typically serves 40 to 80 households.
When the chimney fills up, the system kicks in automatically.
When the sensors in the chutes detect that they’re full, they send a signal to the collection station and the emptying process begins. Powerful fans at the station create airflow through the pipes, carrying the garbage bags to the station at speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour.
Each type of waste goes into its own container at the station.
At the station, a valve sorts incoming waste by type and directs it into the appropriate container. Once a container is full, it’s loaded onto a truck and taken to a recycling center.
According to Swedish company Envac, which developed the system, this approach can reduce waste-collection traffic—and the noise, emissions, and pollution it causes—by up to 90 percent. Since the waste is kept in sealed containers, unpleasant odors are eliminated as well.
The world’s first system was installed in a hospital in 1961.
Centralsug, now known as Envac, installed the world’s first vacuum waste collection system at Sollefteå Hospital in Sweden, where it is still in operation. The first system serving residential buildings went into service in the Ör-Hallonbergen district in 1967.
Today, the company has 1,300 facilities operating across six continents.
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