Your waste is my business
13 June 2025
Finland is actively burning other countries' garbage – and turning it into electricity. With household consumption – and therefore waste levels – dropping overall in Finland, particularly in late 2024, the country turned to Italy and Ireland for backup fuel to keep its massive waste-to-energy plant in Vantaa running.
Around 30,000 tonnes of foreign waste now arrive annually at the Port of Inkoo in the south of Finland, where it's unloaded, transported inland, and incinerated to produce heat and power for thousands of Finnish homes. If all goes to plan, the 30,000 tonnes of waste could double next year.
Exporting countries get to offload their growing trash mountains, while Finland earns a modest fee and keeps its energy output steady. In a continent wrestling with both waste management and energy needs, this unlikely trade is proving surprisingly efficient.
 | Mikael Kataja But what happens when Finland's economy rebounds and its own trash bins begin to fill again? Although at a very small margin, the household consumption has already gone up a bit in 2025. The Vantaa plant, which once ran comfortably on Finnish refuse alone, may soon no longer need foreign input, leaving the countries with overflow to (again) look for alternatives elsewhere, or find less sustainable solutions. As one nation's garbage becomes another's power supply, the line between sustainability and short-term convenience blurs. The story of the garbage trade is a great example of how deeply Europe's infrastructure, economies and ecological ambitions are interconnected. |
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