Swedish Plastic Recycling - About plastic recycling

Waste hierarchy

Swedish legislation for waste and for producer responsibility is based on the waste hierarchy. It is a guide for how we should take care of our waste and reach our environmental goals. Sweden is world leading in plastic packaging recycling, and nearly no plastic packaging ends up in landfills or nature. Here are the five steps included in the waste hierarchy.

Steg 1 i avfallstrappan är att minimera användningen och inköpen av plastförpackningar

Prevention

First and formost we should prevent unnecessary plastic usage.

Steg 2 i avfallstrappan är att återanvända plast genom att köpa produkter second hand

Re-use

Secondly, we should re-use plastics.

Steg 3 i avfallstrappan är att materialåtervinna plasten

Recycle

Recycle plastics is the third best option. Then it can be used as raw plastic material to new plastic products.

Steg 4 i avfallstrappan är att energåtervinna plasten

Energy recovery

Fourth best option is to extract the energy from the plastic packaging

Steg 5 i avfallstrappan är att föra plasten till deponering

Disposal

Disposal is the worst option. It means that the waste is buried at landfills. Disposal occurs hardly at all in Sweden.

The plastic circle

Producers

The producers import, produce or sell goods in plastic packaging on the Swedish market. They are obligated to fulfil the law of producer responsibility.

Plastic packaging

Each year, producers supply the Swedish market with approximately 200,000 tons of plastic packaging.

Designated recycling sites

In proximity to all households there are designated recycling sites. It could either be a collection station in the neighborhood or a recycling site within the property. Plastic packaging includes both soft and rigid plastic.

Baling

Before the plastic packaging arrives at our plant in Motala they are compressed to one square meter bales of plastic.

Sorting station

The plastic packaging is sorted by different fractions and color. Plastic packaging that cannot be sorted extracts into energy.

Washing and plastic granulation

The sorted plastic is sent from our plant to our buyers. They wash and granulate the plastic into plastic raw material that can be used to make new plastic products.

Energy recovery

Plastic packaging which cannot be recycled in our plant or have been sorted in a wrong way at the household, extracts into energy instead. It means that these plastic packaging cannot become new plastic products – a waste of our resources.