Biodegradable waste and nutrient cycling

Municipal biowaste refers to biodegradable kitchen and canteen waste as well as garden waste. In addition to separately collected bio-waste, bio-waste separated from mixed waste is counted in the generated bio-waste.
 
The total amount of bio-waste in municipalities increased until 2020, after which the amount has decreased slightly. The amount of biowaste ending up in separate collection has decreased since 2019. However, the share of separately collected bio-waste in the generated bio-waste has increased since 2020, and in 2023 it was more than half of all generated municipal bio-waste.
 
According to the goal of the national waste plan, in 2027, at least 65 percent of municipal biowaste should be recycled. In 2022, the amount was 424,000 tons, which corresponds to 46 percent of the generated municipal biowaste.
 
Achieving the goal requires a significant increase in the recycling of biowaste.
 
The amount recycled includes an estimate of the amount of home composted food waste.

Food waste includes food originally intended to be eaten (foodstuff) and non-edible parts (such as bones and fruit peels) when these are not used, for example, as human food or feed. The amount does not include the harvest left in the field.
 
In 2022, 607,000 tons of food waste was generated in Finland. The total amount increased from 2019 to 2021, when food waste generation amounted to 693,000 tons.
 
Approximately half of the amount of food waste is generated in households, the increase in the amount of waste explains the majority of the increase in the total amount of food waste in 2021. In 2022, amouts of food waste generated by households and food industry decreased. The food industry's share of food waste in 2022 was 23%, catering services’ 13%, retail and wholesale’s 9% and primary production’s 5%.

In the long term, the amount of biological treatment has increased significantly. In recent years, especially digestion as a bio-waste processing method has increased.
 
In 2023, a total of 72,000 tons of biowaste was digested. Municipal waste accounted for about a third of this. The digestion of other than municipal waste increased 13 percent from the previous year.
 
From digestion there can be obtained biogas for fuel use, recycled nutrients for fertilizers, green building materials and raw materials for industry.

Composting plants are being replaced by biogas plants. The digestate is usually post-composted. For this reason, the information on the digestion and composting of organic waste partially overlaps with each other.
 
Both municipal and other than municipal composted waste have decreased from 2020. In 2023, the composting amount of organic waste decreased by 7 percent from the previous year, being only 171,000 tons. Municipal waste accounted for about two-thirds of this.

Biowaste is treated in biogas plants together with manure, biodegradable industrial waste and sewage sludge.
 
The number of biogas and biomethane plants has more than doubled between 2009 and 2024. In 2024, there were a total of 78 biogas or methane plants in operation, of which 42 percent were agricultural facilities.

In particular, the number of agricultural and joint processing facilities have increased during the review period. Agricultural inputs are considered to still have a large untapped biogas potential.
 
Biogas is also produced at landfill gas collection points. The amounts of these have slightly decreased since 2016, when the organic waste landfill ban came into force.
 
Biomethane production has increased in recent years, and its growth is estimated to continue in the coming years as well. The demand for transport biogas has grown in particular. Biogas is collected mostly in joint processing plants.
 
Most of the biogas is used in the production of heat and electricity, while biomethane is used in transport. Part of the biogas still has to be flared, i.e. the surplus gas is burned into carbon dioxide.