Find Swedish best practice

Extended Producer responsibility (EPR) is a governmental policy and a Swedish law that aims to better waste management and collection. The Swedish system shifts the waste management cost or physical collection fully from local governments to producers. The policy applies to different goods such as packaging, newsprint, electronic products, batteries, tires, end-of-life vehicles, pharmaceutical waste, stray radioactive products and radioactive sources.

Linero, a district of Lund in southern Sweden, is a successful smart city upgrade project focused on improving around 800 apartments built in the 1970s to create more energy-efficient, eco-friendly housing.

The Fossil-Free Energy District (FED) in Johanneberg Science Park in Gothenburg is a unique project that demonstrates how to create a local digital marketplace for electricity, heating and cooling and help reduce the use of fossil energy.

Some 90 percent of Gothenburg’s apartment buildings are connected to the district heating network, a well-proven solution with a number of environmental benefits. But the district heating system has now been further improved using new technology to enable storage of heat for fluctuating needs.

Hörneborgsverket, a biofuel-based cogeneration plant, is at the heart of Övik Energi’s energy production. Hörneborgsverket produces roughly equal amounts of district heating, steam, and electricity. Some 99% of the fuels used at the plant are renewable, and the steam is distributed to local industries.

To stop eutrophication of the sea, Gryaab treats the Gothenburg region waste water. The residue, sewage sludge, is turned into soil, fertilizer and a climate-friendly vehicle fuel.

The generation of both district heating and electricity almost entirely from waste makes the Dåva CHP (combined heat and power) plant extremely energy efficient and environmentally sustainable. Its renewable sources include sorted waste and forest industry residues.

CHP Plant

Hedensbyn was Skellefteå Kraft’s first bioenergy combine when it started operations in 1996 and has been a world leader in the development of modern bioenergy technology ever since.

The small island of Händelö, which is part of the City of Norrköping in eastern Sweden, is home to a remarkable industrial symbiosis in which by-products from one company are used as input for neighbouring companies Everything at the site is based around using green energy.

The Filborna plant is a waste-to-energy plant which combusts sorted waste from the nearby region. It supplies approximately 40 percent of Helsingborg’s heating demand. The plant features a state-of-the art, combined flue gas cleaning and condensation system to ensure high efficiency whilst meeting stringent emission requirements.

Malmö’s Western Harbour, previously a run-down shipyard and industrial area covering 187 hectares, is now a vibrant ‘city within a city’, with a university, around 10,000 residents and more than 16,000 people working there (figure from 2016). The area has its own systems for managing its energy supply and waste treatment, and car traffic in the area has been minimised as an environmentally sustainable approach to urban planning and mobility.

The digestion facility for the production of biogas is one of the bigger in Sweden, treating about 85,000 tons of organic material every year.