General overview
Modern waste handling is a complex system that can be divided into five basic areas of operation: generation, collection, transportation, treatment and utilization or final disposal.
Today it is recognised that waste, properly treated, constitutes a resource of considerable value that can be used in a number of ways.

Sweden has great potential for achieving a sustainable waste handling system because of its infrastructure, its technical knowledge and the general spirit of co-operation that exists between the authorities, municipalities, research centres and the waste handling business. However, more knowledge is needed. In the last decade, priority in Swedish waste [...]

Most hazardous waste comes from industrial processes. Some of it is managed at the industries where it is produced on the basis of a special permit issued by the Government. Such permits have been extended to some 30 companies in Sweden. The municipalities can also take responsibility on a voluntary [...]

Extended producer responsibility is currently a leading principle for bringing about a move towards cyclic material flows. This principle has been made mandatory by law for packaging, waste paper, cars and tyres, and a proposal to introduce legislation in Sweden for electronic and electrical products has been sent to the European [...]

The responsibility for waste management at the political level rests with the Ministry of the Environment, with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency as the central enforcement and supervising agency and, at the regional level, the County Administrative Boards. At the local level, these responsibilities lie with the municipalities.
Permits for bigger [...]

Economic instruments are used in order to carry out the intentions of the environmental policy. Examples of such instruments applied in the waste management sector are: differentiated waste collection rates and treatment charges, as well as deposit and refund systems. A tax on landfilling of waste is under way.

Each municipality has been obliged since 1991 to have a waste management plan which must contain information on waste quantities, the use of waste treatment methods, and the measures planned by the municipality to reduce the quantity and toxicity of waste. These plans comprise all types of waste, as well as [...]

Handling of waste, including treatment facilities, landfills etc., is subject to the licensing regulations contained in the new Environmental Code that was approved in June 1998 and has come into force on January 1 1999.
This new code encompasses all major environmental legislation and will modernise environmental law and interact with and [...]

Since the 1980s, Sweden has followed certain key principles for the management of products and waste, such as the precautionary principle, the substitution principle and the principle of extended producer responsibility. The Government has set ambitious goals and implemented concrete policies that have led to significant results, for instance in reducing [...]

Waste management is currently in a state of flux in most industrialised countries. New technology, new laws and broader international collaboration are rapidly changing the way we handle, treat and dispose of waste. Focus is now shifting towards recycling and minimising the amount of waste as well as its toxicity