🌐 Clean Streets: Piping Out Trash Below Cities in Pneumatic Tubes

An exciting trend we’re tracking at Supercool is how cities are turning to innovative underground infrastructure to tackle climate challenges. In doing so, they're proving that cutting carbon emissions can go hand in hand with creating cleaner, safer, and more enjoyable urban spaces.

Take Disney World, for example. When the Orlando-based theme park opened in 1971, it introduced a futuristic pneumatic tube system, hidden below ground, to whisk away visitor-generated trash at speeds of over 40 miles per hour, tossed in the waste bins above. Sixty-three years later, that system is still going strong, and visitors don’t have to deal with the sight or smell of garbage trucks—or their fumes.

Roosevelt Island in New York City followed suit in 1974, installing a similar system to align with architect Philip Johnson’s vision of the "city of the future." Today, 14,000 residents rely on it daily.

From London to Beijing and Stockholm to Singapore, touchless, automated underground waste collection systems are discreetly revolutionizing city life. By replacing garbage trucks and conventional trash collection with pneumatic pipes that quickly convey waste below ground, these systems bring clear benefits:

• Cleaner, quieter neighborhoods

• Fresher air and less traffic

• Safer, more pleasant streets with newfound room for bike lanes, trees, outdoor cafes, and other urban amenities

For city leaders, the advantages are just as compelling:

• Lower operational costs

• Greater resilience during extreme weather

• Less wear and tear on streets

And the environmental upside? Up to 90% fewer emissions from trash hauling and up to 5 times greater compliance with recycling mandates.

With over 1,200 systems installed worldwide, Envac—the pioneer and global leader in underground waste collection—is helping cities rethink what’s possible for climate infrastructure.

Here’s an explainer video to see the Envac system in action.

Beyond cities, Envac is also making waves in hospitals and airports. At Beijing’s 301 Hospital, the waste and soiled linen system is hidden in the walls and ceilings and hermetically closed to minimize pathogen risks. In the U.S., Atlanta Children’s Healthcare is integrating Envac’s system into its 19-floor children’s hospital, improving waste removal and recycling and minimizing the risk of hospital-acquired infections.

Joakim Karlsson, CEO of Envac, sums it up: “We’re not just taking waste collection to a new level. We’re taking it to a whole new dimension.”

Joakim joins Josh on the Supercool podcast to discuss Envac’s journey and the future of AI-powered, touchless waste systems.

As the Mouse knew back in the ’70s, cutting carbon, cutting costs, and improving quality of life aren’t mutually exclusive. In the hands of sustainability innovators, they’re entirely compatible.

Take me to the podcast:

Link to article on Supercool

↓

Number of the week: $2 Million

That’s how much money Bergen, Norway, the city with the world's most comprehensive, touchless, automated underground waste collection system, saves annually by eliminating garbage pick-up.

Quote of the week

“The rubbish revolution means that city workers and residents will never have to walk past rows of wheelie bins or be woken early by noisy garbage trucks... Common aspects of waste collection such as odours and vermin will be avoided, and the costs of daily street cleaning will be reduced.”

— Mayor Mark Jamieson of Sunshine Coast in Australia, remarking on his city’s underground pneumatic system from Envac, the first such system ever installed “down under.”

↓

Related Stories

Here are other supercool initiatives underway in the underground economy.

Gulf of Finland Seawater Cools Google Data Center, which Heats Nearby Homes

Fifteen years ago, Google invested over $200M in an old Finnish paper mill in the town of Hamina, transforming the mill into a state-of-the-art data center cooled by icy cold seawater. But servers still give off heat, so Google is working with local partners to capture and recycle that waste heat to satisfy 80% of the town’s overall heating needs.

Helsinki Uses AI-Driven Data Centers to Stay Warm

Earlier this summer, we highlighted Equinix for using waste heat from its Paris data center to warm the Olympic swimming pool. Now, the company is pushing the envelope further north, using excess heat from its Helsinki data center to support the local district heating system, which provides warmth to the city’s homes.

Cooling the Mona Lisa with Seine River Water

While the Mona Lisa is already renowned for her cool demeanor, she’s also benefiting from a high-tech, sustainable cooling solution. At the Louvre, the air conditioning system is powered by water from the Seine River, courtesy of Swedish industrial firm Alfa Laval. 

Lake Ontario’s Cold Water Cools Toronto's Buildings

When the stakes are high, and the Toronto Raptors need to stay cool, they rely on an ingenious cooling system that pulls chilly water from the depths of Lake Ontario. This system, built by Enwave (pictured above), cools the Scotiabank Arena and over 100 downtown buildings.

Hamburg Tackles Industrial Waste Heat

Up to 50% of today’s energy is lost as waste heat, especially in industrial sectors. In Hamburg, Germany—a city with a strong industrial foundation—the Aurubis Group, in collaboration with Alfa Laval, recovers waste heat from its copper smelting operations. This recycled energy now heats over 23,000 homes in Hamburg, turning an industrial byproduct into a valuable community resource.

↓

City Spotlight: Stockholm

On a continent that prioritizes livability, Stockholm ranks near the top. According to the latest European Commission’s Quality of Life Rankings, Stockholm comes in at #6, evaluated on safety, job market, housing, mobility, cultural attractions, and more.

Here’s what makes Stockholm Supercool:

Underground Trash Collection: As the headquarters of Envac, Stockholm has long been a leader in automated underground waste collection. Over 20% of the city’s residents benefit from these systems, and every major new housing development in Stockholm features Envac’s touchless, automated technology.

Residential Geothermal Energy: Geothermal energy is widely used in Stockholm, boosting energy efficiency and reducing fossil fuel reliance. An impressive 36% of single-family homes are equipped with geothermal systems. To achieve this, Stockholm’s installers use precision drilling techniques to bore tubes 200-500 feet underground without causing disruption in high-density neighborhoods.

As we’ll hear in an upcoming Supercool podcast episode, Dandelion, the nation’s fastest-growing residential geothermal company, discovered the techniques on a field trip to Sweden and brought the approach back home. 

Zero Food Waste: In 2023, Stockholm banned food waste, followed by a nationwide ban in early 2024. Residents are required to separate food waste, which is then recycled. Biokraft, one of Stockholm’s key recycling companies, converts food waste into fertilizer for local farms and biogas to fuel buses. It’s a major win for the circular economy.

🌐