Old and new Envac pioneers

The world’s first waste suction plant was inaugurated in 1961 at the newly built and ultramodern Sollefteå hospital. Nobody thought that the central vacuum cleaner, which was also to suction waste from the hospital was to become one of Sweden’s most wellknown environmental technology products 50 years later. Somebody had to blaze a trail. Somebody had to take the risks of introducing a new technology.

In this edition of Envac Concept, we present today’s “Envac pioneers”. We will write about the City of Oslo’s decision to install EnvacOptibag’s smart optical sorting system based on sorting household waste into different coloured bags. We describe Stockholm’s experience of the first self-emptying litter bins installed in an extremely popular park in the centre of the city. The Municipality of Bergen in Norway has also taken a daring and innovative decision - to install Envac throughout the historic old town in parallel with the installation of district heating. Outside Paris the town of Romainville recently inaugurated the first waste vacuum system in France - a pioneering project that has quickly inspired other French towns to take the same course.

We rarely have the opportunity to show our appreciation of these pioneers, who risk so much when they break new ground - not least politically. But courageous forerunners are necessary to make the technological changes required for the sustainable development of our towns and cities.
 

Stockholm in November 2011

Jonas Törnblom
Senior Vice President Corporate Marketing & Public Affairs, Envac AB