Redefining Waste

From the linear to the circular

Modern humanity has long had a linear approach to natural resources. Raw materials extracted from nature are made into goods and products that are consumed and discarded – as if drawn from an endless source.

Yet, nature's resources are not infinite. Earth Overshoot Day – the date on which humanity's annual total consumption of natural resources exceeds what the planet can generate in 12 months – has been arriving earlier and earlier on the calendar each year. When first calculated in the late 1970s, the day was in November, but it now falls in August and July.

And humanity’s ecological footprint is pushing the planet to its limits. Mining metals, drilling for oil, and harvesting forests – along with refining and processing it all – pollutes the land, consumes water, and emits greenhouse gases. The “planetary boundaries” framework by Scientist Johan Rockström and his team at the Stockholm Resilience Centre set thresholds for key environmental measurements, which would indicate a point of cascading negative impacts if any were exceeded. To date, six out of the nine planetary boundaries have been crossed.

There is a solution

Applying a circular approach, however, could transform all of that. By moving materials and resources in a loop – making new products with reclaimed materials or replacing their need through reuse – humanity could reduce its reliance on nature and ease its strain on the planet.

This actually isn't new. Before the Industrial Revolution, people often grew much of the food they ate and made many of the things they used last. Clothing was mended and repurposed, broken tools were melted down and reforged into new ones, and nutrients were returned to the soil for crops via manure.

The key then, as it is now, lies in what everything extracted from nature eventually becomes: waste. The biggest environmental impact of any product is from when it's manufactured – extracting raw materials, transporting, processing, and so on. Maximising the life cycles of products and then recycling as much of them as possible doesn't leave much waste behind.

According to a report by the World Bank, however, most of the world’s current waste ends up in a landfill or dump of some kind. Only about 13 per cent of the world's waste is recycled. The number is higher in the EU and Sweden, where around 40 per cent is recycled or composted.

But there's more to circularity and waste than just recycling and composting, especially in Sweden.

Managing waste in Sweden

Sweden incorporates several international guidelines and regulations on how waste is managed. As a member of the EU, it follows the union’s Waste Framework Directive and laws regarding waste. The country has also chosen to adopt the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, of which goal 12 is to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

On a national level, basic environmental laws are covered in the Swedish Environmental Code (Miljöbalken), while the Waste Ordinance (Avfallsförordningen) sets overall regulations for waste management. In addition, the Ordinance on Producer Responsibility (Förordningen om producentansvar) stipulates the makers and suppliers of certain products – like electronics, car tyres, and such – are legally responsible for collecting and recycling them when they become waste.

Most of the everyday trash and garbage in Sweden is handled on a local municipal level. According to the Swedish Environmental Code, municipalities are responsible for managing household waste and similar-like waste, such as discarded food and general refuse. Each municipality has its own programmes and regulations governing waste collection and disposal.

In an effort to encourage more environmentally responsible methods of disposal, Sweden banned disposing of household waste through landfills in the early 2000s. As a result, much of the country's household waste is recycled and incinerated for energy recovery. It's material that cannot be recycled or incinerated – ceramics, bricks, and such – that, together with the slag residues leftover from incineration, ends up in Swedish landfills today.

Everyone’s responsibility

Municipal waste management in Sweden is funded through mandatory service fees paid directly by property owners, as well as indirectly by non-property owners as part of their rent. This money funds collection services, but also recycling centres for mobile waste facilities, and more. Municipalities also often collaborate with outside organisations specialising in second-hand or refurbished products to process discarded textiles, electronics, and furniture. Municipal waste management, however, cannot turn a profit, so any funding surpluses must be reinvested or paid back to residents.

But how Sweden handles waste goes even further. It essentially involves each individual, as is best evident in the country's approach to packaging waste. The designed- to-be-discarded wrappings and containers that hold most products are a scourge for waste management all over the world. It’s a category that includes paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, and metal, but also waste items that mix materials. And according to the Waste Ordinance, everyone in Sweden must sort the packaging waste in their household trash for recycling.

Preventing waste through the circular economy and eco-design

The EU's Waste Framework Directive requires that every member state have a national waste plan and a waste prevention programme. Sweden established both its plan and programme in 2018, and the current Swedish government aims to revise them. The overall focus includes moving the country away from the linear economics of buy-and-throw-away to more resource-smart approaches, designing products with waste in mind from the start, phasing out particularly dangerous substances, and more.

Underneath it all is the core idea of the circular economy. The concept was made famous by the record-breaking solo world sailor Ellen MacArthur. While alone at sea, she recognised a correlation between her boat – loaded with only essential supplies to go as fast as possible – and the Earth. MacArthur’s realisation? Resources are limited, and we have to make the most of what we have.

“The circular economy is about imitating nature.”

Essentially, the circular economy is about imitating nature. Everything manufactured should be recyclable, either biodegradable or deconstructable for materials. It should also be reusable, meant to be updated and upgraded, and made to last.

There's a shift in attention away from the product itself to its function. And that mindset can help further reduce the number of newly purchased products because it's easier to partake in pooled resources.

Tool lending libraries, ridesharing services, and designer clothing rentals are all examples of when consumers pay for a function rather than a product. The rise of digitisation has increased opportunities to do that through sharing, borrowing, and renting.

Thinking before creating

Another key aspect is eco-design. The methodology integrates environmental considerations directly into product design and development, which can create products that are more sustainable, energy-efficient, and require fewer resources. Thinking about something’s potential environmental impact early on in its development can go a long way to reducing waste, energy consumption, and emissions. Eco-design covers everything from the choice of mate- rials and production technology to the product’s usage and end-of-use recycling.

Most importantly, there's the idea that no single part of society – the government, private businesses, or the public – can do it alone. Everyone needs to work together. And it's not just waste that has to change.

There need to be shifts in legislation, production, and consumption to encourage the sustainable development needed for extracting fewer raw materials and producing less emissions.

This booklet explores how Sweden is defining all the different types of waste and highlights the companies and organisations developing new ways of preventing waste and turning it into a resource.

The waste hierarchy

A cornerstone of waste management in Sweden is a set of guiding principles known as the waste hierarchy. Notably laid out in the EU’s Waste Framework Directive, this prioritised order of actions serves as a tool for evaluating and adapting processes and policies to reduce waste and improve resource efficiency that can be applied by producers, governments, and even private individuals.

It’s best illustrated as a series of steps, with the highest step (Prevention) viewed as the most important action and the lowest step (Disposal) only considered as a last resort.

1. Prevention

The ultimate approach to waste management is to try and not create any waste in the first place. This means reducing consumption but also taking measures to help ensure a product avoids becoming waste after its initial use and reducing the risk of harmful impact if it does become waste.

2. Reusability

After prevention, the next highest priority is to find new life for a product after it’s used. This can be reusing a product as-is or after repairing, refurbishing, or repurposing it. The aim is to extend the lifespan of products for as long as possible before they can become waste.

3. Recycling

Once the usage of a product can no longer be extended, the next priority is to reclaim any of its material to make new products. Recycling helps conserve natural resources and reduces the need for raw materials. This can be done for paper, plastic, glass, metal and even organic material from food waste.

4. Recovery

For anything non-recyclable, the next possible option is to recover any valuable or useful purpose from it. This is most often by converting it to energy through incineration, which generates electricity and heat. It’s the last optimal alternative for any non-recyclable waste before disposal.

5. Disposal

Anything that can’t be further reused, recycled in any way, or can’t be used for recovery is waste that’s disposed of at a landfill or by non-energy-generating incineration. This is waste management’s last resort and must ensure minimal harm to the environment and public health.

Sewing up textile waste

A blazer missing just one button, a blouse torn slightly on one side, and a dress that…well, went out of style before it could be worn. These are the kinds of clothing people often throw away.

10% of global carbon emissions

The fashion industry is estimated to be responsible for 10 per cent of global carbon emissions – more than international flights and maritime shipping combined.

With the rise of fast fashion, the textile sector has developed into an industry with major environmental costs. According to an EU report on the impact of textile production and waste on the environment, the fashion industry is estimated to be responsible for 10 per cent of global carbon emissions – more than international flights and maritime shipping combined. In addition, textile production uses a lot of water and land. Making just a single cotton t-shirt requires 2,700 litres of fresh water alone, and the textiles industry was the third largest source of water degradation and land use in 2020.

An evergrowing demand

Those numbers are expected to go up even more as the sector continues to grow. Between 1975 and 2018, global per-capita textile production increased from 5.9 kilograms per person to 13 kilograms per person. The world’s population is expected to consume over 102 million tonnes of textiles annually by 2030, compared to 62 million tonnes per year in 2015.

A step in the right direction

In 2022, the European Commission announced a new approach to make textiles more sustain- able through repair, reuse, and recycling. As part of the strategy, EU countries will introduce regulations regarding producer responsibility for textiles. This means that anyone who manufactures, imports, or sells textiles and clothing will have to help ensure that they’re collected for reuse or recycling. But before Sweden enforces the regulations, local municipalities are starting to collect textile waste separately and sort it into two categories: reuse and recycling.

However, unlike collecting household food waste or sorted packaging waste from homes and apartment buildings, the municipalities are managing textile waste through drop- offs at recycling centres and other collection points.

Helping producers take responsibility

The overall purpose of this initial stage is to reduce the amount of textiles in the residual waste that municipalities incinerate. But it can also serve as an early source of textile waste for Swedish companies and organisations developing textile recycling methods. Once Sweden begins enforcing producer responsibility regulations for textiles, there will be a definite need for such solutions.

One such solution is Siptex, the world’s first large-scale textile waste facility. Located in the southern Swedish city of Malmö, it began operating in the autumn of 2020 and receives several thousand tonnes of textile waste per year from across Sweden and Europe. Siptex is able to separate textiles by fibre composition, so the waste can be sorted into different textile fractions. The most sought-after textile fractions for recycling are those that contain more than 70 per cent cotton or polyester, which are the easiest to process. Siptex also sells textile waste for downcycling – turning materials into products of lower value than what they were originally used for – mostly as sound absorbers.

Siptex is able to separate textiles by fibre composition, so the waste can be sorted into different textile fractions

A major problem with textile recycling is that clothes often consist of mixed materials. One of the most common textile blends is cotton and polyester, which the Swedish forestry company Södra has developed a process for separating. Afterwards, the cotton is mixed with cellulose, a raw forestry material, to create the company’s own brand of sustainable textiles called Oncemore. Swedish clothing company Lindex, among others, has already developed a summer collection featuring Södra’s Oncemore textiles.

Another leading name in Sweden’s textile recycling scene is the company Circulose, which was previously known as Renewcell. Its proprietary technology was developed at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in 2012 and can produce 100 per cent recycled cellulose textile materials from textile waste. The process removes any non-organic materials before turning the waste into large sheets of cellulose to produce new clothes. The first factory to use the process opened its doors in 2022. Two years later, the investment firm Altor bought and renamed the company.

Meanwhile, two separate Swedish start-ups, Syre and Rewin, have each developed their own technological processes for chemically extracting polyester and recycling it into new textile products. Such circular polyester production – reclaiming the material from textile waste and using it to create clothing – would avoid the heavy toll of extracting and using oil to produce new polyester.

Conscious consumption

Recycling textiles is a complicated and costly endeavour all around the world, including in Sweden. And new textile materials are still cheap to buy. But considering the fact that much of the textiles thrown away are still reusable, it’s not environmentally sound. So, it’s important to prevent textile waste. Key factors that help do that include high-quality clothes and shoes, awareness of proper care and maintenance, and – of course – the second-hand market.

In Sweden, there’s a long history of charity organisations such as Stadsmissionen, Björkåfrihet, Human Bridge, and others operating second-hand stores. Many municipalities cooperate with these organisations by accepting donated clothing and textiles for them at collection points and recycling centres. Several municipalities and environmental organisations also organise clothing swaps and repair events.

Textile collection and second-hand sales require a large amount of work sorting and determining which textiles and clothing meet the criteria to be resold or recycled. So far, this has been done manually, but Wargön Innovation and RISE Research Institutes of Sweden have recently developed an AI-based system for sorting and evaluating used textiles and clothing. The next step is to test the AI system in a brick-and-mortar textile sorting facility.

Dispatching packaging waste needs to be easier for everyone

In 1994, Sweden aimed to reduce packaging waste by adding it to the regulations stipulating producer responsibility. This made the companies and businesses that manufactured, imported, or put packaging material in any way on the Swedish market responsible for its waste collection and recycling. The ability and supporting technology to manage packaging waste improved greatly over the next decade. However, according to a report by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket), the amount of packaging actually increased throughout the country by 75 per cent. And a lot of it wasn’t being sorted and separated for recycling from household waste. In fact, packaging material made up an estimated one-third of residue waste, which meant it went to incineration instead of material recycling.

To truly fight packaging waste, it has to be prevented.

Research has shown that people recycle more when disposal is easier and more convenient.

Eventually, the Swedish government decided to make the municipalities responsible for collecting and recycling packaging waste. Research has shown that people recycle more when disposal is easier and more convenient. So, to increase packaging waste recycling rates in Sweden, all local municipalities had to begin including it in their waste management programmes in 2024, and must provide kerbside collection of all packaging waste by 2027 at the latest.

Convenience outweighs responsibility

While many people in Sweden already can, soon everyone will be able to sort the most common types of packaging waste – paper, plastic, metal, and glass (either colour or clear) – into separate recycling bins for collection right from their home, along with residual waste and food waste. Plus, since the Swedish government made sure producers have to reimburse municipalities for the cost of collecting packaging waste, it won’t increase service fees for property owners and residents.

It has, however, drawn several global waste management companies to have a presence in Sweden, working with local municipalities to handle collection and recycling. The German company Remondis, for example, collects and recycles household waste – including packaging waste – in over half a dozen Swedish municipalities, as well as in almost 30 other countries. While PreZero, another German multinational, handles waste management for around 40 Swedish municipalities.

Sweden also has a long-established and successful system for recycling bottles and cans. Packaging for beverages like beer and soda is part of a deposit-return scheme. The price for such packaged beverages includes a deposit of about SEK 1 to SEK 2 (EUR 0.089 to EUR 0.18) each, which is refunded to whoever returns an empty bottle or can. A deposit-return system for aluminium cans was first introduced in 1984. Deposit-return for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, like those for soda, began in 1994, and juice bottles were added in 2023.

Today, about 90 per cent of all the cans and bottles in Sweden’s deposit-return system are collected and recycled. For the other types of packaging waste, there’s a broad range of rates – from 86 per cent for glass containers to 50 per cent for plastic packaging.

Yet, to truly fight packaging waste, it has to be prevented. In 2024, the EU instituted new policies to help reduce, reuse, and recycle packaging waste. Europe may even ban all single-use plastic packaging in the future. Currently, however, only restaurants and cafés with to-go menus that serve more than 150 customers per day have to also offer reusable alternatives to disposable food containers and cups.

As a result, there are now several notable ventures and efforts working to address packaging waste in Sweden.

The start-up Panter, for example, has created a growing nationwide system of reusable food containers that customers can request for takeaway orders at participating restaurants or cafés. Containers can be returned within a week to any of Panter’s partners. If a customer still has a container after one week, they’ll be charged SEK 10 (EUR 0.89). After one month, they’ll be charged SEK 90 (EUR 7.97) but get to keep the container.

Meanwhile, many of the country’s popular convenience store chains, such as Pressbyrån and 7-Eleven, offer discounts on coffee or tea to customers with their own mugs.

Sweden’s first packaging-free store, Gram, opened in the city of Malmö in 2016. Customers bring their own containers and bags (which are weighed before and after to calculate price), and choose from a wide selection of spices, dried beans, teas, coffees, vinegars, oils, and so on. Gram also sells containers and bags for any customers who forget their own or didn’t bring enough. There are many such “zero waste” grocery stores throughout Europe.

Sweden has a long-running deposit-return scheme for bottles and cans, with about 90 per cent of all beverage containers for things like beer and soda in the country collected and recycled.

Restaurants and cafés can help reduce packaging waste by offering reusable alternatives to disposable food containers for to-go meals.

Downsizing plastic waste

Why has plastic become so common? It’s flexible, light, durable, and cheap.

But plastic is also non-degradable. While it can be made from sugarcane, corn, and other biomaterials, what’s typically referred to as “plastic” is a synthetic or semi-synthetic material made from oil. As such, it doesn’t degrade or decay into simpler components over time.

When it’s worn down by friction, the wind, or sun damage, plastic just breaks apart into smaller and smaller pieces until all that finally remains are particles invisible to the naked eye – microplastics.

In 2018, the EU adopted a plan to reduce plastic waste and increase plastic recycling. Today, single-use products made of plastic that were once commonplace – such as cutlery, plates, and straws – are banned. Starting in 2025, plastic PET bottles (like those used for soda, water, and other liquids) must also be made with at least 25 per cent recycled plastic. By 2030, all plastic bottles must be made with at least 30 per cent recycled plastic.

For plastic shopping bags, the EU’s target is to limit annual consumption to approximately 40 lightweight plastic bags per person by the end of 2025. In support of that target, Sweden introduced a tax in 2020 that increased the average price of a plastic bag throughout the country from SEK 0.50 (EUR 0.08) to SEK 7 (EUR 0.62). As a result, the use of plastic shopping bags decreased significantly.

Only some of the many types of plastic on the market can be recycled, and demand for recycled plastic material is low due to cheap new plastic material.

Challenges in plastic recycling

Sweden first began recycling plastic packaging recycling in the early 1990s. At first, it was mostly hard plastic, then soft plastic as well. Yet, because plastic packaging waste is often messy or smeared with what it contained, many people don’t separate it from household trash, and it ends up sorted among residual waste designated for incineration. This directly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions when it’s burned.

There are also major problems when it comes to recycling plastic. Only some of the many types of plastic on the market can be recycled, and demand for recycled plastic material is low due to cheap new plastic material. Furthermore, plastic can only be recycled a few times before it wears out. So, any manufacturing process utilising recycled plastic always requires the addition of “virgin” plastic.

New infrastructure and facilities

But Sweden still aims to continue reducing plastic waste while increasing how much of it is recycled. The goal is to recycle at least 50 per cent of all its plastic packaging (including all the PET bottles within its deposit-return system) by 2025 and then 55 per cent by 2030. This requires new infrastructure and facilities to better address the issues of recycling plastic.

In 2023, one such facility officially opened in the Swedish city of Motala. Built by the international recycling technology company Sutco and operated by Swedish Plastic Recycling (Svensk Plaståtervinning), Site Zero is one of the most efficient facilities of its kind and processes 12 different types of plastic waste for sale to manufacturers in need of material to recycle. Customers clean and process the plastic themselves after purchase. But even Site Zero has difficulty sorting certain plastic waste – such as packaging made with dark-coloured plastic or large labels – highlighting how crucial it is to design plastic packaging for recycling from the start.

Overall, there are four key changes needed for Sweden to reach its target of recycling 50 per cent of all plastic packaging:

• 1. Swedish households have to get better at separating plastic packaging for collection, so more plastic waste can be recycled.
• 2. Producers in Sweden must use more packaging design that makes it easier to detect plastic and sort it for recycling.
• 3. Recycling technology and facilities like Site Zero should further improve and optimise processes for plastic.
• 4. A strong market for recycled plastic materials must develop among manufacturers.

The Swedish Food Retailers Federation (Svensk Dagligvaruhandel) is the official trade organisation for some of Sweden’s largest food retailers – such as ICA, Axfood, Coop, Lidl and Bergendahls. Along with the group’s mission to protect and promote the common interests of its members, it advocates for several key policy positions, including sustainable products and processes in the grocery industry. The Federation has publicly stated that all plastic packaging on the market should be recyclable and that all new plastic packaging should only be made from recycled or renewable materials.

Plastic packaging is just the tip of the iceberg

However, plastic is used for more than just packaging, and there’s also a need for other types of plastic recycling. Broken plastic products – such as outdoor furniture and sledges — are frequently left at Sweden’s municipal recycling centres, while the construction and industrial sectors are constantly creating nearly countless amounts of plastic waste.

One operation that specialises in handling such needs is the Stena Nordic Recycling Centre in Halmstad, Sweden. The leading recycling facility in all of Northern Europe has developed a unique process for removing plastic from electronics, cleaning it and atomising it for use in new products. Another company is Novoplast in west-central Sweden, which focuses on providing a wide range of recycled industrial plastic for different manufacturing needs. These are just two examples of the services helping reduce the amount of newly produced plastic materials and provide more circular alternatives.

Hauling in ocean plastic

Because it’s such a lightweight material, small pieces of plastic often disperse and blow away during production and waste management, as well as anywhere in between. On beaches around the world, you’ll find the small plastic pellets used for manufacturing – carried by winds from cargo ships or factories – along with plastic bags, packaging, ropes, and more. By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean.

Ocean plastic poses a huge threat to marine wildlife. Seabirds and large fish can confuse plastic floating in the water for food and ingest it enough that they starve to death. Aquatic animals can also become entangled in so-called “ghost nets”, plastic fishing nets that have been abandoned or lost to drift throughout the sea. Researchers have even discovered microplastics in the internal organs of various marine animals. It’s suspected to affect reproductive capacity, as well as impact hormonal balance due to known endocrine disruptors contained within plastic.

The first marine recycling facility

Along with the ban on several single-use plastic products, EU member states are also combating the issues by aiming to collect at least half of the estimated annual waste the fishing industry leaves in the ocean every year and begin recycling 15 per cent of it by 2025.

The core of Sweden’s effort against ocean plastic is based in the Sotenäs municipality on the country’s west coast. As the main hub of the Swedish fish and seafood industry, it’s home to Sotenäs Centre of Symbiosis (Sotenäs Symbioscentrum), where a variety of people, organisations, and companies collaborate on investments in education, employment, and sustainability relating to the ocean and fishing. Part of the centre’s operation is the first marine recycling facility in Sweden, which turns plastic waste collected from the ocean and beaches into things like watch bands, building materials, and clothing.

Community beach clean-ups

There are also ways for members of the Swedish general public to help fight ocean plastic. The West Coast Foundation (Västkuststiftelsen), for example, is a non-profit dedicated to preserving the natural landscapes of Western Sweden that manages a digital beach cleaning map. Through the project’s website or smartphone app, users can find or report beaches in need of cleaning, mark beaches they’ve cleaned of plastic waste and litter, and schedule a pickup for what they’ve collected. This can be done for any beach on the Swedish coastline, but the map is almost only used for west coast beaches.

Ocean currents make Sweden’s western coast a high-impact area of ocean plastic. Trash from all over the world washes up there. So, many Swedish initiatives addressing plastic in the ocean focus on that geographical area.

CleanSea is one such initiative. A creative mix of grassroots environmental action and online retail, it organises large-scale clean-ups of bays, ocean floor areas, and islands in the Bohuslän area – collecting every possible piece of plastic waste, fishing gear, and trash. The efforts are funded through the sale of CleanSea’s bracelets.

Researchers have even discovered microplastics in the internal organs of various marine animals.

Peeling off discarded food & food waste

A third of all food produced in the world is thrown away somewhere along the farm-to-fork journey. It occurs at all stages – from harvesting and processing to transporting and consuming – but it’s the last part, especially household consumption, that accounts for the majority. Any food or food product that’s thrown out is “food waste”, but food waste that’s still edible and could have been eaten if handled differently is “discarded food”.

Sweden and the EU aim to reduce discarded food and avoidable food waste by 50 per cent, both in food-related industries and family households, by 2030. Targets that are in line with those of the UN. At the same time, there’s also a push to increase the collection of unavoidable food waste, i.e., indelible parts of food, like vegetable peels, meat skins, and bones.

For several years, most of the municipalities in Sweden had already been collecting food waste to produce biogas and biofertilisers. However, under the new EU Waste Framework Directive, food waste collection became mandatory in 2024. So, all Swedish households will now have to sort food waste into separate bins for collection.

“Discarded food could be used to keep three billion people from going hungry”

Yet, as per the waste hierarchy, preventing as much food waste as possible is the best thing for the environment and the climate. According to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, it’s ten times better for the climate not to discard food that’s still edible, even if it becomes biogas and bio- fertiliser. Discarded food could be used to keep three billion people from going hungry but also ease some of humanity’s impact on the planet. Food production accounts for 30 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions and is the biggest reason for lost biodiversity, land degradation, and eutrophication (when bodies of water are depleted of oxygen caused by an imbalance of nutrients). In fact, Swedish researcher Johan Rockström has noted that if humanity can fix food, it’ll fix the planet. To that end, a variety of Swedish companies, organisations, and municipalities are developing ways to reduce the amount of discarded food and food waste.

Karma, for example, is a smartphone app by a Stockholm-based company that works with participating restaurants to sell takeout meals and menu items at a discount before they expire. Users just download and log on to see what’s available in their area.

There’s also Rscued, a beverage company from Helsingborg. Since 2015, it’s been making its line of juices, smoothies, lemonades, and other drinks from salvaged fruit and vegetables that would otherwise have been thrown out.

Meanwhile, Sweden’s second-largest city, Gothenburg, is the originating home for an approach to dealing with discarded food and food waste in schools that’s being used across the country. Because Swedish schools serve meals and snacks to all children, they have large-scale kitchen operations, and the Gothenburg Model for Reduced Food Waste (Göteborgsmodellen för minskat matsvinn) covers everything from purchasing and menu planning to reporting and managing leftovers.

The Swedish National Food Agency (Livsmedelsverket) also provides plenty of advice and information for preventing and decreasing discarded food and food waste.

There are many ways to reduce overall food waste in schools and residential care facilities, as well as in restaurants and households, across the many stages of food preparation – from purchasing and storing ingredients to cooking meals and handling leftovers. But there will still be some uneaten food thrown out, along with the likes of coffee grounds, orange peels, and fish skins.

A circular mindset

In Sweden, municipalities are responsible for collecting and treating food waste from households, restaurants, and businesses. According to both the Swedish Waste Ordinance and EU regulations, all food waste must be removed from any packaging and sorted into its own waste bin for collection and disposal.

The municipalities usually hire contractors – such as Renova, SUEZ, Ragn-Sells, Nordic Recycling and others – to collect food waste. It’s then transported to a biogas facility that’s known as a co-digestion plant, where it’s added to an anaerobic digester for processing sewage and other organic waste into biogas. The resulting climate-neutral fuel helps reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and more. Biogas is used as fuel for buses, trucks, and cars, as well as for heat production and industrial energy. A recent report from the Swedish Gas Association, put the number of biogas-producing facilities in the country at just over 280, half of which are co-digestion plants.

When the biogas production process is complete, whatever’s left of the waste has a high content of nutrients – like phosphorus and nitrogen – as well as soil-forming substances. And in Älmhult – the birthplace of IKEA – the company Soilfood has built an entire business out of turning the remnants from creating biogas, as well as waste from food production and other industries, into agricultural products like organic fertilisers. It lowers the need to import necessary fertiliser additives from outside the country and creates a circular loop that returns nutrients to the soil.

Re-casting metal waste

Metals are elements and alloys found everywhere in modern society. For example, the average car contains up to 40 different metals, while a smartphone contains more than 60. And as technology develops more and more, the demand for different metals will also increase.

Metals, however, are a finite resource found in the Earth’s crust. Some metals – such as aluminium and copper – are abundant. Others – like lithium and cobalt – are what’s known as “critical metals” that may be in short supply. Yet, metals also have a great advantage in that they can be recycled any number of times.

Mining for metals is environmentally hazardous. Open-pit mining, which is done when metals are close beneath the surface, uses a lot of land and damages biodiversity. All mining, however, along with metal processing, emits large amounts of greenhouse gases and can leak toxic chemicals.

It’s crucial, therefore, to invest in recycling and methods for using metals more sustainably and with more circularity in order to lower demand for new metals and decrease mining.

The average car contains up to 40 different metals, while a smartphone contains more than 60.

Sweden is by far the largest producer of iron ore within the EU. It’s also among the top producers of base and precious metals. Yet, according to a report by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (Naturskyddsföreningen), just over 40 per cent of steel produced in Sweden is recycled, i.e. made with scrape, which is higher than the global average of 35 per cent. Recycled copper, meanwhile, accounts for about 54 per cent of copper used in Sweden.

Swedish households are used to leaving metal packaging, like cans and jar lids, for recycling, with over 80 per cent of metal packaging placed in the correct recycling bin. Metal-based products that have reached the end of their life cycle can be taken to municipal recycling centres. Electronic products fall under producer responsibility and must also be collected for the recycling of metals and the destruction of hazardous substances (covered in the next section). When metal waste arrives at a recycling facility, it’s sorted and separated by type.

Steel packaging is melted down for new steel, while cans and bottle caps become engine parts and rebar.

And recycled metal has a measurable positive impact. The energy used to recycle aluminium is 95 per cent less than the energy for extracting and producing new aluminium. Recycling steel instead of making new steel has been show to lower air pollution by 86 per cent, water consumption by 40 per cent, and water pollution by 76 per cent.

One Swedish company that processes metal waste for iron, copper, steel, aluminium, and precious metals is Stena Recycling. It breaks up the waste and sorts the pieces with magnets, then processes the reclaimed material for steel and smelting plants. Another company is Skrotfrag, which started by dismantling and recycling metal in cars. Today, it also recycles all types of iron, copper, brass, aluminium, and stainless steel. There’s also NG Metall, which focuses on large industrial customers and, in addition to the metals already mentioned, also recycles lead, duplex stainless steel, chrome steel, and zinc.

Meanwhile, the European metal producer Boliden’s Rönnskär smelter in the northern locality of Skelleftehamn has gained a reputation as one of the world’s leading facilities for extracting metals like copper, gold, and solver from electronics. And Fortum, the Finnish state-owned utility that provides waste and recycling services in Sweden and other Nordic countries, has developed technology to recycle more than 80 per cent of the material in lithium-ion batteries and 95 per cent of the rare earth metals.

Advancing metal circularity

Due to the increased production of electric cars, there’s a serious risk of lithium and other critical metal shortages in the future. With that in mind, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation created a metal waste hierarchy:

• 1. Minimise demand
• 2. Reuse products
• 3. Recycle already mined metals
• 4. Apply new methods of extraction
• 5. Extract new materials

Modelled after the waste hierarchy, it was developed to help make metal a more circular material.

Excising electronic & hazardous waste

Electric kettles, toasters, cordless hand mixers, coffee makers, blenders, and juicers. The modern kitchen is a wonderland of technology compared to the kitchens of previous eras, like the 1960s, when there was only an electric stove and a refrigerator. Everyday technology, of course, goes beyond the kitchen to every room in the house. And all that electronic convenience comes at a great cost – even for the miniaturised machines of today’s digital age.

According to a report by the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet), an estimated 1,200 kilograms of total waste is generated to manufacture just a single computer weighing 3 kilograms – that’s a ratio of 400:1. The waste-to-product ratio is even higher to make an 86-gram mobile phone at 502:1, generating an estimated 85 kilograms of total waste.

Key raw materials for electronics have to be mined and enriched – which requires a lot of energy, oil, and water – and thus creates a lot of pollution. Some raw materials, like brominated flame retardants, lead, and mercury, can also be hazardous – although several are now banned. Others that are critical for producing electronics, such as rare earth metals, have a future availability that’s uncertain.

A report by Swedish Waste Management (Avfall Sverige), the industry’s official trade association for the entire country, cited electronics and electrical products as impacting the climate and environment more than any other product category. It is, therefore, especially important to prevent, reuse and recycle discarded electronic products and devices – collectively known as electronic waste or e-waste – whenever possible. E-waste, however, is the fastest-growing category of waste by volume. A large part of that increase is due to the IT sector, which focuses not only on keeping up with the latest innovations in hardware and software but also style and design.

“Electronics and electrical products are impacting the climate and environment more than any other product category.”

Although, at least in Sweden, a noticeable shift has already begun in information technology. Companies like Linköping-based 3StepIT offer a circular twist on IT services, managing the lifecycle of client companies’ IT devices from procurement to end-of-life, with the goal of reducing e-waste. Similarly, Inrego has specialised in supplying companies with refurbished IT equipment – used computers, smartphones, tablets, and more – specifically to reduce impacts on the environment for almost 30 years. Its reach now extends far beyond Sweden to over 87 countries. And it’s not just work-related tech. Since opening its first store in Stockholm in 2010, the mobile phone/tablet repair and resell chain PhoneHero has added a handful of locations across the country while also operating one of the most trusted used electronic resale sites around.

But not all e-waste can be prevented. And any electronic or electrical product that contains hazardous substances, such as heavy metals and flame retardants, is covered by producer responsibility. So, manufacturers are required to implement design and production processes that help prevent such e-waste and support its proper collection and recycling. Producers can only use waste collection systems that are authorised by Sweden’s Environmental Protection Agency and must submit specific data to the Agency’s waste registry.

E-waste and hazardous waste drop-offs

For the last ten years, all stores that sell electronics and electrical products in Sweden have been required to accept e-waste from the general public and dispose of it through an approved collection system. People in Sweden can also bring any e-waste to municipal recycling centres. And because recycling centres are often difficult to reach without a car, many Swedish municipalities organise mobile collection units for residents in cities and urban spaces to drop off e-waste or hazardous waste.

From collection to facility

From there, a waste service company or organisation, such as El-Kretsen or Recipo, takes over. These groups handle the administration of companies’ producer responsibility. They coordinate municipalities, fund relevant waste collection, and ensure that the e-waste is recycled or disposed of in accordance with current regulations.

After it’s been collected, e-waste is transported to a specialised recycling facility, like the Stena Nordic Recycling Center in Halmstad. Once there, any environmentally hazardous components, like batteries or parts containing mercury, are manually removed. The waste is then automatically dismantled and processed – using magnets, sorting machinery, camera technology, and more – to reclaim raw materials like metals and plastics.

However, not all e-waste processing is the same. For example, there’s more of a focus on metal extraction at a facility in Katrineholm run by NG Metall. After the hazardous components have been manually removed, the electrical waste is divided into smaller sizes and mechanically sorted with more complex magnets, including the changing magnetic fields of eddy current magnets and advanced detectors that separate the reclaimed raw materials into specific categories like iron, aluminium, and copper, as well as plastic and metal concentrates.

Some types of e-waste are also best processed separately, like light bulbs. Ragn-Sells, one of the leading waste management companies in Sweden, has a facility just for recycling light bulbs, from traditional incandescent bulbs and fluorescent tubes to modern LEDs. There, special processes can safely release and capture the powder inside a bulb or tube (which may contain mercury) for reuse in manufacturing new fluorescent tubes/low-energy bulbs. The glass and metal, meanwhile, are processed for recycling.

Other hazardous materials

Many other products besides batteries from e-waste and lightbulbs contain dangerous substances and also get thrown out. Things like paints, oils, solvents, and even expired pharmaceutical products. Such hazardous waste can be, among other things, toxic, carcinogenic, explosive, corrosive, or flammable. Because it’s harmful to both people and the environment, this type of waste can’t just be poured down the drain or discarded with regular trash.

In Sweden, municipalities are responsible for collecting hazardous waste from households. People can bring any hazardous waste to municipal recycling centres, as well as mobile waste units or designated collection points in certain stores.

How hazardous waste is handled depends on its composition. Through special processes, some hazardous waste can be reused or rendered harmless for disposal. For example, a can of old paint would be processed at a hazardous waste facility through high-temperature incineration designed to destroy any chemical residue but leave the metal from the container for recycling.

Producer responsibility guidelines

Any companies and businesses in Sweden that operate with hazardous waste must follow specific rules and guidelines for protecting both public health and the environment. They’re required to:

1. Identify and classify all hazardous waste
2. Separate it from other waste
3. Store all hazardous waste safely
4. Label all hazardous waste containers
5. Use authorised transport companies
6. Document all hazardous waste
7. Report it to the Environmental Protection Agency
8. Ensure it’s processed at authorised facilities
9. Obtain an environmental permit

An essential aspect of these guidelines is utilising the services of a capable and qualified waste management company, which is authorised to transport and process hazardous waste. Fortum, for example, is one such company that markets itself with a focus on high-quality treatment for hazardous waste that renders it harmless or removes it from the ecological cycle.

Revamping industrial & construction waste

Human consumption depletes the Earth’s resources and creates waste. And it’s not just consumer waste at the end of a product’s life cycle, but also waste from extracting raw material, manufacturing, and more. Industrial waste – the waste resulting from producing consumer products and household goods – accounts for the largest amount of society’s waste.

Over 80 per cent of the country’s industrial waste comes from mining

Sweden has one of the largest national mining sectors in Europe, and the Swedish mining industry generates the most waste of any sector. Over 80 per cent of the country’s industrial waste comes from mining.

Historically, waste from mining has been disposed of through landfilling and backfilling. Millions of tonnes of old mine waste are buried in landfills and filled-in mines across Sweden. However, old mine waste can contain valuable materials, such as critical metals and minerals needed for the ongoing energy transition. The Geological Survey of Sweden (Sveriges geologiska undersökning), which is the official government agency for geological information, has investigated several closed mines to see if it is possible to recover material from the mine waste used to fill them in. Mine waste produced today, meanwhile, is still managed through landfilling and backfilling, but it’s also used as embankments for dams and construction material.

The other major waste-generating industry in Sweden is the construction and building sector, which is estimated to generate a third of the country’s waste. This consists of concrete, metal, stone, wood, plastic and more. A small percentage is also hazardous, such as contaminated soil, contaminated mineral-based materials, and impregnated wood. While hazardous materials have to be properly disposed of or destroyed, there’s great potential for reuse and recycling when it comes to other materials in construction waste.

Building with a circular mindset

In Sweden, discarded materials left over from building and demolition must be sorted at the source, i.e. at the construction site. They can be recycled to make new building materials, incinerated for energy extraction, or deposited in landfills. And since 2020 – when Sweden’s Waste Ordinance was updated – anyone who generates construction and demolition waste is required to sort it for collection into several categories:

• Wood
• Mineral-based materials – such as concrete, brick, tile, ceramic, or stone
• Metal
• Glass
• Plastic
• Plaster

The purpose is to increase reuse and recycling within the construction industry, which could have serious environmental benefits and can already be seen yielding results.

In 2022, the Swedish waste management company Ragn-Sells partnered with the French-based glass manufacturer Saint-Gobain on a project to turn glass collected from demolition and building renovation sites into new windows and glass doors. The next year, Ragn-Sells announced it would focus on developing its future sustainable solutions in only a select few areas – one of which was “construction”.

Conclusion

In Sweden and around the world, people are looking at waste in a whole new light.

Most now realise that the Earth’s resources are finite and need to be utilised in a way that’s sustainable. Many people are ready to take on the challenge of reducing waste.

Is it possible to live by the 5 Rs?

Some have even embraced the growing zero-waste lifestyle movement. Zero wasters buy food in bulk stores with their own bags and containers, repair their things or buy second-hand, and shun disposable products like paper napkins or cotton balls. They do everything to avoid waste and live by the rule of 5 Rs: “refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle”.

But living a modern zero-waste life isn’t easy. What do you do if an LED lamp breaks? What if you need medicine? What happens if the battery for your mobile phone goes bad? Being human in the 21st century means inevitably generating some waste – it’s unavoidable. Moreover, being waste-free (or even just low-waste) not only costs more money but more time and effort.

Turning towards a more circular economy and a more sustainable planet doesn’t just mean reducing waste. It requires new perspectives on waste, including understanding that it’ll take more than just what can be done on an individual level. Changes are needed from the small and everyday to the global and societal.

Through transformative legislation and financial instruments, along with innovative companies and organisations, we can create new ways to invent, design, manufacture, distribute, use, reuse, and recycle.

A single country like Sweden can’t do all that for the entire world. But it can do its part. It can spearhead new approaches to waste and share its methods for waste management.

And everyone can be part of the change the global community needs.