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Demokratiskolan
The Waste & Recycling card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 6 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaEnvironment & resources
  • Centre of gravityThe municipality
  • Points of influence2 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe municipal election
Environment & resources

Waste & Recycling

Reduce, reuse, recycle & recover

The bag of rubbish you throw out tonight is already planned for: the collection is procured, the charge is decided in the municipal council (kommunfullmäktige) and the treatment is steered by the EU's waste hierarchy. Household waste is a municipal monopoly, and that makes waste collection one of the most local questions of power there is.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · collection, charge & plan · approx 40 %
  • State · legal requirements & producer responsibility · approx 30 %
  • EU · waste hierarchy & targets · approx 30 %

The municipality owns the everyday: collection, charge and waste plan. But the rules of the game come from the EU's Waste Directive via the Environmental Code, so the municipal election and the European Parliament election meet in your bin room.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe monopoly · centre of gravity
The regionOn the side
Central governmentThe rules
Who decides?
The municipal council (kommunfullmäktige), the technical committee and the municipal waste companies.
The region has no formal role in the waste system.
The Riksdag, the Government and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket).
What do they decide?
The collection of household waste is the municipality's monopoly. The waste charge, the waste plan, the recycling centres and now also packaging collection.
No formal role. Waste is the municipality's responsibility, with the central government's and the EU's rules on top.
The Environmental Code's waste rules, producer responsibility for packaging, electronics and batteries, and the national waste plan.
Where are decisions made?
In the municipal council, which decides the charge and the waste regulations.
No arena of its own for waste questions.
In the Riksdag and at the Environmental Protection Agency, which guides the municipalities and follows up on the targets.
Who pays?
The waste charge, not tax. It is to cover the costs under the actual-cost principle.
Nothing of the waste system.
The central government budget for agencies and supervision. The producers pay for their packaging.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election The waste regulations are put out for review, the charge is decided by your elected representatives.
Regional election The regional election does not affect your waste collection.
General election The general election steers producer responsibility and the deposit return scheme. The referrals are open.
EUThe EU's Waste Directive with the waste hierarchy and the recycling targets steers the whole system. Influenced in the European Parliament election.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case The rubbish bag's journey
  1. EU

    The waste hierarchy sets the order

    The EU's Waste Directive ranks what should happen to waste: prevent first, then reuse, recycle materials, recover energy and dispose last. All Swedish rules build on that hierarchy.

  2. State

    The Riksdag distributes the responsibility

    The Environmental Code makes household waste the municipality's responsibility and places producer responsibility on whoever sells packaging, electronics and batteries. The Environmental Protection Agency writes the regulations and follows up.

    Point of influence

    The general election steers the rules, and the proposals are sent out openly as referrals before a decision.

  3. Municipality

    The council sets the charge

    The municipal council, the elected representatives in your municipality, decides the waste charge and the waste regulations with the waste plan. The charge can steer behaviour, for example a lower fee for those who sort their food waste.

    Point of influence

    The waste regulations are put out for review before a decision. Everyone can submit comments.

  4. Municipality

    The bag is collected

    The refuse truck is run by the municipality's own company or a procured contractor. Food waste often becomes biogas and biofertiliser, residual waste goes to energy recovery that becomes electricity and district heating.

  5. Your everyday life

    The loop closes

    The packaging you rinsed out becomes new raw material, the food scraps can become bus fuel and the heat from the residual waste can warm your block. The charge that pays for the system was set by your local politicians.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. Is it reasonable that the municipality has a monopoly on household waste, or should it be opened to competition?

  2. Should it cost more to throw out unsorted waste, even if it hits different households differently?

  3. Who bears the greatest responsibility for reducing waste: you as a consumer, the producers or the politicians?

  4. What works well and badly in the waste system where you live, and who would you say it to?

  5. Sweden burns a lot of waste for energy. Is that smart use of resources or a convenient shortcut?

Glossary

Avfallstrappan
The EU's ranking: prevent, reuse, recycle, recover energy and dispose last.
Producentansvar
Whoever sells a product is responsible for it being collected and recycled.
Renhållningsordning
The municipality's waste plan and regulations, put out for review before a decision.
Avfallstaxa
The charge for waste collection, decided by the municipal council under the actual-cost principle.
Energiåtervinning
Waste that cannot be recycled as material is burned and becomes electricity and district heating.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.