Underground system manages garbage collection at Brunnshög

As the properties in Brunnshög is being built, the underground pipes of the garbage extraction system are also laid in place. The garbage that can be disposed of in the facility is residual waste, food waste, paper packaging and plastic packaging. Usually there will be a drop-in point in each yard, and the goal is to have garbage dumps within 50 meters of the entrances of the houses. The idea is that the garbage collector should soak each fraction separately once in the morning and once in the evening. The waste will be sucked at a speed of approximately 70 km/h and transported using an airflow to a transhipment station adjacent to the E22. When the container at the terminal is full, the treatment plant comes and changes the container and transports the material for recycling.

Other types of waste, such as light and dark glass packaging, metal packaging and paper (newspapers) are collected in underground containers that are emptied by crane truck. The containers are well increased in size so that emptying can occur less frequently compared to emptying an individual vessel. In this way, this part of the system also helps to reduce the heavy traffic on Brunnshög. Already now a shop on Brunnshög has the so-called “Samlaren” to collect small electronics and in time small electronics and light bulbs will be collected in connection with more shops.

Even before the summer of 2022, the garbage collection system began to be tested for properties in southern Brunnshög, and during the autumn the first intake has been opened in central Brunnshög. Right now about 800 apartments are connected and sometime around 2040 the garbage collector will take care of garbage from at least 5,000 apartments. In autumn 2022, this pipeline system will be 3.8 km long with a longest travel distance of 1.5 kilometers.

In addition to reducing heavy traffic in the area, the garbage collector makes the area safer for traffic and allows the streets to be built more densely without loading zones and turning points. Instead of garbage rooms, property owners can use the surfaces for something else that residents benefit from, garbage dumps can be placed close to residents, and the system reduces the risk of unpleasant odors. There will also be a better working environment for the employees at the cleaning plant.

This garbage collection thing is really nothing new. The first Swedish garbage collector was installed back in 1961 at Sollefteå Hospital, and today there are garbage bags in several major cities in Europe. The system at Brunnshög is the first stationary garbage collection system in Lund Municipality and is already in 2022 Sweden's largest garbage collection system with four types of materials.

- What we believe makes Brunnshög unique is the combination of a garbage collector together with underground containers. We don't know this solution anywhere else,” says Mikael Anderson, project manager at Lund Renholdningsverk.

The first sod was taken in 2016 and a trial run of the system is underway in 2022.

- To see that everything is correct and so that we can make the necessary adjustments and actions, we need to test run the system with garbage. While the test operation is ongoing, there will be containers on display where you will dispose of your waste if the vacuum cleaner does not work flawlessly, continues Mikael Anderson. In the future, we believe in using AI that can take a variety of factors into account and make a specific discharge schedule every day to ensure the best possible quality and energy consumption.

The roof of the garbage collection terminal is covered with solar cells and there is also a battery to store energy. The solar cells and the battery can handle some of the consumption. With increased energy prices, it may become profitable to revise the discharge times so as to deplete the four fractions at times when electricity is cheap.

The property owners pay a connection fee that covers the large investment. This fee is index-linked and is about SEK 27,300/apartment for 2022. The residents then pay an operating fee that is roughly equivalent to regular vessel handling.