The new waste requirements: "Will not have time"

Metal, paper, plastic packaging and colored and uncolored glass must be collected next to Swedish properties and residences from and including January 1, 2027. That is when new legal requirements for collection close to properties (FNI) come into force. Five different containers for different types of waste must be in place near Swedish buildings until then.

Marcos Carlson is the CEO of Sansac, one of the companies in Sweden that sells the containers and cabinets that a large number of condominium associations, property and villa owners now demand. He says that the demand means that 2026 will be an "exceptional year" for the industry. But there are also challenges – time is short and not all waste solutions are expected to be in place by the end of the year.

- If a large municipality were to place an order now, just forget that it would be ready before January, says Marcos Carlson.

Some municipalities seem to have realized this and given up on the idea of ​​being ready on time, according to Sansac's sales manager Claes Vahlberg.

- I can already say that we see that this will continue beyond 2027 and beyond, says Claes Vahlberg.

Another company in the industry, PWS Nordic, also believes that the transition will spill over into 2027. The company's CEO Dan Håkansson points out at the same time that simpler waste solutions, such as plastic containers, can be quickly delivered to individual property owners.

- There is very high pressure now and we produce around the clock. That's a lot of vessels. We manufacture almost 35,000 vessels a week at the moment, says Dan Håkansson.

Municipalities as well as property and housing owners have had the opportunity to change since 2024. Avfall Sweden, the municipalities' industry organization in waste management, has criticized the changeover period for being too short. Communications manager Anna-Carin Gripwall does not dare to guarantee that 100 percent of the municipalities have had time to change by the end of the year, but believes that there will probably be a very high level of connection.

- This is a gigantic logistical change that must take time, she says.

The reasons why actors waited with the changeover are several, according to Marcos Carlson and Claes Vahlberg at Sansac. On the one hand, they believe that some municipalities, property owners and housing associations have tackled the issue too late. In addition, there are various local challenges that mean that it takes time to find solutions. In central parts of cities, there may be a shortage of space, while in sparsely populated areas it may be difficult to offer garbage collection often enough.

Sweden's municipalities and regions (SKR) criticized this very thing in a debate article earlier this year:

"Overall, too little consideration is given to how different Sweden's 290 municipalities are. Some consist of urban agglomerations with narrow streets and old houses, others of sparsely built-up expanses."

The organization then wrote that it wants the law, which has not yet entered into force, to be rewritten, because the law "creates more problems than it solves".

In Stockholm's inner city, there are major challenges in finding space for both garbage cans and garbage trucks, which Svenska Dagbladet previously reported on, among other things.

The requirement for collection close to the property is for Sweden to adapt to an EU regulation on packaging and requirements for increased material recycling.

- The ambition with collection close to the property is good. The goal is for sorting to increase where we do not achieve the EU goals today. It is above all paper and plastic that you lag behind, says Claes Vahlberg.

The new Swedish regulation was voted through in 2022. The time that followed was marred by rising inflation and interest rate increases. Claes Vahlberg believes that the economic situation is another reason why the transition has been delayed in some places.

- The picture has been that many condominium associations and property owners have waited to invest because the economic situation has been bad, says Claes Vahlberg.

Marcos Carlson adds that the influx of requests, and thus the pressure on the industry, has increased all the more by 2026 that has passed.

- It is clear that reality has caught up with many now with four months left in the year, says Carlson.