Producer responsibility

As we approach the closure of the first half of 2025, the producer responsibility organisation Näringslivets Producentansvar (NPA) concludes that the invoiced packaging fees have exceeded the actual costs of collection and recycling. We are therefore refunding the surplus to our customers – in line with our non-for-profit business model.

When Conny Udd and Jan Ridfeldt, CEOs of Tekniska Verken and Umeå Energi, argue that producers should replace sorted packaging waste, they miss a crucial principle: residual waste is a municipal responsibility. This is written by Henrik Nilsson, head of business development and community relations at Näringslivets Producentansvar, Henrik Oxfall, responsible for plastic issues at IKEM, and Mattias Philipsson, CEO of Svensk Plaståtervinning, in a reply in Aktuell Hållbarhet.

As the largest producer responsibility organization, NPA has a responsibility to provide so-called collection points throughout Sweden. Here, companies can drop off packaging waste generated in their operations free of charge. The collection points are financed through the packaging fees for non-private use paid by producers.

According to the ordinance on littering fees, producers of single-use plastic products are required to pay a littering fee. The purpose is to finance the municipalities' costs of cleaning up single-use plastic products that have been thrown away in nature and in public places. The producers covered are required to report certain packaging in quantities. The report can be made through NPA's customer portal and must be sent in by March 24th.

To make it easier for you as a customer to navigate our reporting instructions and criteria for differentiated fees, we have collected all information regarding reporting of all types of materials for Private use and Other than private use in one and the same document.

The PPWR has now been approved by both the EU Parliament and the Council of Ministers and will soon come into effect. The regulation's provisions will generally start to apply 18 months after it enters into force, although not all requirements will take effect simultaneously. Below, we’ve listed a few things that are good for you to know.

The Environmental Protection Agency's follow-up of producer responsibility for packaging in 2023 shows that Sweden reaches three out of nine material recycling targets. The recycling of plastic and paper packaging is increasing, but not yet reaching the targets.

Right now, a comprehensive reform of the collection of household packaging waste is underway, with the goal that more packaging should be sorted out and recycled. Sweden's municipalities are in the middle of the transition to fulfill the packaging regulation's requirement for fully developed curb side collection for all households by January 1, 2027. Now 55 municipalities are questioning the requirement and are instead asking for increased municipal discretion in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Government.

Companies that have producer responsibility for packaging are responsible for reimbursing the municipalities' costs for packaging collection according to the "polluter pays" principle. Here we go through how the compensation is calculated, what is included and how it is paid out.

What is a service packaging and who is responsible for reporting it? Watch the video and learn more!

Are you wondering what differentiated fees mean and why there are different fee levels? Watch the video and learn more about the basis of differentiated fees and criteria.

Do you want to know which costs and principles build the packaging fees? In this video we explain the basis of our packaging fees and how the financing of the collection systems works.