Sweden and its National Collection Scheme : from problem to solution

AUTHOR : Peter CORNELIUSSEN, EU contact manager, SvepRetur

Sweden introduced a national system for the recovery of used agricultural plastics 20 years ago. Since then, the professionals, their practices and their organisation have learned and made great progress. For Plasticulture Magazine readers, Peter Corneliussen, SvepRetur’s EU contact manager, takes stock of the progress made and the challenges ahead.

In 1995 the founder of Svensk Ensilageplast Retur AB (or “SvepRetur”) realised that the new silage techniques that were being introduced made it necessary to address the issue of plastics on farms. In parallel, from 2001 the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) started to plan a national solution to respond to general waste issues raised within society. In 2002, our founder started the SvepRetur project to deal specifically with the agricultural plastics waste on a voluntary basis together with the major stakeholders, to go beyond state legislation.

How did svepretur come about?

It was agreed with the EPA that plastics for agricultural use would be recognised as non-packaging products, i.e. not falling under the new legislation. In exchange SvepRetur committed to set up a collection system and report to the EPA once a year and update the collected and recycled quantities.

All producers, major co-ops, dealers and other big stakeholders on the Swedish agricultural plastic market were invited to initial set-up meetings. An Industry association called “Branschföreningen Svensk Ensilageplast Retur” was formed by these stakeholders, which takes the legal responsibility for the end-of-life management of the contributing agri-plastics. The association is the owner of the private limited company SvepRetur AB that operates the scheme, with the financing collected by the association. An advance between 2.000 to 10.000 € (for a total of 78.000 €) was required as a start-up fee (that was reimbursed 2 years later).