Littering costs the country’s municipalities hundreds of millions of kroner every year.
Last year, the bill amounted to almost SEK 430 million to take care of rubbish picked up from the ground, writes the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency in a press release. But soon those who manufacture the products that are most common as litter will have to pay the cleanup costs.
Sweden’s municipalities have for the first time reported their cleaning costs for the previous year. A total of 227 municipalities submitted reports.
The cleaning costs, together with a litter measurement and the producers’ own reported amounts, shall be the basis for the littering fees that the producers must pay next year.
The fees are to cover the municipalities’ costs for cleaning up certain single-use plastic products that are common as litter in Sweden.