The company was awarded as a promising entrepreneur in the waste industry. But part of the business idea is suspected to have been to dump mountains of rubbish around Sweden, without doing anything else.
Today, the prosecution is expected to come against the woman who has been called the “Queen of Trash”, and several of her employees.
The police investigation into the company NMT Think Pink started in 2020, two years after the woman who led it was awarded “Gazelle of the Year” by Dagens Industri.
– It is the absolute biggest serious environmental crime that the prosecutor’s office and the police authority have investigated, said Lise-Lotte Tegler, who is one of the prosecutors in the investigation, to TT earlier this year.
The “Queen of Trash” and two other people were arrested and detained for some time. NMT Think Pink has now gone bankrupt.
Toxic smoke spread
The suspicions are that unsorted waste has been dumped at 21 locations in Central Sweden.
In Botkyrka, south of Stockholm, the municipality has set aside 200 million kroner to clear away the mountain of rubbish that ended up there. Three years ago, thick, toxic smoke from a waste fire spread, and families for miles around kept their children indoors.
It took several months to put out, and while the fire was raging, nearby residential areas sometimes had greatly elevated levels of harmful chemicals in the air, according to a study at Stockholm University.
In Skultuna, outside Västerås, Think Pink is considered to have deposited almost four times more than the 10,000 tonnes it had permission for. There, too, the waste began to burn.
Between Eskilstuna and Strängnäs, toxic waste is suspected to have been buried under more than 19,000 turquoise bales.
15 municipalities
Gullspång in Västra Götaland, Laxå in Örebro County and Norrtälje in Uppsala County are some of the other 15 municipalities where environmental crimes are believed to have occurred in connection with Think Pink’s waste management.
More than 200,000 tons of waste have been left at various locations, writes Göteborgs-Posten, which has been in contact with the municipalities.
In addition to the dumping itself, there are also suspicions that waste has been moved between different locations, in order to take advantage of a loophole in the legislation.
About ten people are suspected in the investigation, including serious environmental crimes and money laundering.
The woman dubbed the “Queen of Trash” denies the allegations. She does not want to be interviewed, but her lawyer Jan Tibbling says she lost control of the waste when she and her ex-husband were arrested and detained in 2020.
– The environmental scandal that came about is actually caused by this measure, says Jan Tibbling to GP.
On Thursday, the prosecutors and the police will hold a press conference about the expected indictment.
FACT Think Pink tangle
The waste company that the criminal investigation is about was started in 2012. One of the founders was the woman who came to be known as the “Queen of Trash”.
In 2016, the company took the name NMT Think Pink.
In 2018, the woman was awarded as a promising entrepreneur by Dagens Industri.
In 2020, an investigation was launched regarding suspicions of serious environmental crimes. The woman and her then-husband were detained for several weeks.
The investigation concerns, among other things, waste management at 21 locations in 15 different municipalities: Botkyrka, Huddinge, Haninge, Eskilstuna, Flen, Strängnäs, Gullspång, Skövde, Laxå, Västerås, Norberg, Håbo, Uppsala, Norrtälje and Östhammar.
Suspicions of money laundering have also been investigated.
Recently, there have been about ten suspicious persons.
The material is extensive. The investigation consists of approximately 45,000 pages.
Source: The Public Prosecutor’s Office
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