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Litter ban for Swedish households – this applies

Do you throw potato peels, apple cores, or other food waste into regular trash bags?

Then it’s time to start changing your habits.

At the beginning of the year, new laws are being issued that put an end to mixing food scraps with other waste.

– From 1 January 2024, requirements for separate sorting and collection of biowaste from households and businesses will apply, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency confirmed in a press release.

Applies to all individuals

The requirements are linked to the new EU law on biowaste.

The law means that all EU member states must ensure that biowaste is separated and recycled materials at source, or alternatively collected separately and not mixed with other types of waste.

– Everyone who has biological waste that must be sorted according to the waste system is covered by the requirements, and this applies to both individuals and companies, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency confirms.

This also means that landlords must provide the opportunity for appropriate screening of homeowners and tenants, for example.

Half misses

In principle, no home escapes biowaste, which includes food waste such as fish skins and peels of fruits and vegetables.

Even tea and coffee bags end up in the same garbage bag.

The change after the turn of the year will be stressful for many households, not least in Gothenburg, where on average half the population throws their food waste into regular rubbish bags – rather than sorting it.

– In recent years, we Gothenburg citizens have become increasingly better at leaving cardboard boxes, plastic containers and bottles for recycling. This means that less of everything ends up in Gothenburg residents’ trash bags and is incinerated, says Bo von Baar, food waste manager at Kretslopp och vatten, in a press release.

– it is good. We now need to get better at handling our food waste and turning it into biogas and biofertilizers.

Municipalities must inspect

Municipalities are responsible for supervision as the supervisory authority for waste management.

In practice, this means that it is up to each municipality to ensure that the new rules are followed.

To do this, the municipality can, for example, take measures such as injunctions for fines, environmental penalty fees, bans or suspicion of a crime.

The supervisory effort must be proportional to what can be achieved in the individual case, this is what the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency emphasizes on its website.

– In the first place, supervision must be carried out through inspections.

Photo: MarcusOscarsson.se

Text: Editors