Sweden is at the forefront of waste management and recycling technologies. Most garbage is recycled or incinerated under controlled conditions in heating plants. It was a long time ago that we dumped our rubbish in so-called landfills, where the waste could sometimes burn day and night, and the stench spread across the neighbourhood. However, landfills are still common in other   …  

I live in a country with hot summers and high humidity. This means that many products have a shorter lifespan, especially things made of plastic. For example, it’s not uncommon for the inner door handle on cars to break off, as the heat fatigues the plastic and causes it to fail; the same goes for hatchets, knobs, strips etc. The   …  

Several Western countries have now banned plastic bags. In fact they are not actually banned, but only in certain specific contexts. It is not allowed to sell them over the counter, with the intention of packing goods in them for home transport. It is also not allowed to use so-called organic plastic bags made from other materials. However, ordinary plastic   …  

Our current geological epoch is called the Holocene, and it began about 11,700 years ago. The Holocene is an interglacial, i.e. a warm period between the ice ages. The epoch has already reached its maximum extent, which occurred sometime during the Bronze Age, and now it will gradually get colder, until the ice sheet once again covers the North and   …