Since the turn of the year, the rules regarding waste sorting have been tightened in Sweden.
Pouring oil down the sink can be an expensive business for those who are careless, because the municipalities have a new method to track those who are careless – something that Home & Rent was the first to report on.
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What happens if you throw oil down the sink?
News24 has previously written about the risks of throwing oil down the drain. Perhaps the clearest example is the huge lump of fat that was discovered in Norrköping’s sewage system in April 2024.
The lump was the result of years of missorting of oil and could have caused a serious sewage blockage in the city. Luckily, the lump was found in time, but removing it was not easy.
For several days, divers had to hack at the plug to get it to come loose.
READ MORE: Fat lump of 40 tonnes in the drain – had to be cut away by divers
The lump of fat took several days to remove. Photo: Nodra / Home & Rent.
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“Interesting to investigate where the fat comes from”
The biggest reason fat lumps are treated as a mega-problem is that the concrete-like lumps can burst. That’s why the housing companies spend enormous sums on cleaning the drains of any grease build-up.
In 2023 alone, Sweden’s housing company had to pay between SEK 40,000 and SEK 3 million for drain flushing, according to Hem & Hyra.
So that the costs do not just end up on landlords and housing companies, cameras have therefore been placed in the drains which make it possible to trace which apartment the grease is coming from.
This means that in the future it may be easier to see who dumped the oil and also demand a payment directly from the culprit.
– If the property owner sees that there is something recurring from a house, I think it could be interesting to investigate where the grease comes from, considering the cost, says Andrea Hjärneenvironmental lawyer at Waste Sweden, to Home & Rent.
Many people throw frying oil directly into the sink. Photo: Janerik Henriksson/TT
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