Drop off packaging
If you run a business where packaging waste occurs, you have a responsibility to ensure that it is returned for recycling. Examples of businesses where packaging waste occurs are restaurants, hospitals, shops, offices, construction companies and public events outdoors.
Different ways to leave your packaging waste
The packaging waste that occurs in your business must be sorted by source and returned for recycling. There are several options for you to leave packaging waste.
1. Drop off at a collection point
You can leave your packaging waste yourself, free of charge, at our collection points, or hire a transporter who is responsible for collecting, reporting and transporting the waste to a collection point.
2. Sign up for the municipality’s collection system
If your business is co-located with households that have curbside collection in the property (for example if your hair salon is located in the same building as an apartment building) and you share and use the same recycling containers, you can register with the municipality’s collection system and have your packaging collected by them.
3. Hire a private contractor
You can also choose to hire a private contractor who runs a market-driven system for recycling, which is registered with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
Packaging waste from businesses must not be left at the municipality’s recycling stations.
Collection points
The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has announced that Näringslivets Producentansvar has the largest market share and is thus responsible for organizing and operating collection points for business waste.
The system is being expanded continuously until 2026, when there must be at least one collection point per municipality. It is the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency that decides on the expansion of collection points.
Our collection points
At most collection points, you are required to make a delivery notification before you go to the location. Read more about what that means further down on this page. Collection points are open on weekdays, not weekends or holidays - see which day and time that applies for each location.
Make a delivery notification
Before you leave
From March 1, you must make a delivery notification before going to the collection point. The booking prepares the facility for your arrival, what you have with you and how large the volumes are. Once you have completed the booking, you will receive an ID number to be shown when you arrive at the collection point. Please note that the delivery notification only is valid for one vehicle. If you have several vehicles, you must make several delivery notifications.
You cannot leave packaging waste without first making a delivery notification. If the information in the booking does not match the content of your delivery, reception will be refused.
Consider this
Before you visit the reception point there are a few things you need to consider.
❚ Only leave packaging
Packaging is something that has enclosed or protected a product.
❚ Do not leave hazardous waste
You must not leave hazardous waste such as nitrous oxide cartridges or other pressurized containers at the collection points.
❚ Sort the packaging
The packaging must be sorted into separate fractions – paper/cardboard, plastic, metal, colored glass, uncolored glass, wood and other packaging materials (for example cork, porcelain, ceramics, fabric, etc.)
❚ Empty the packaging of their contents
The packaging must be emptied of their contents. Packaging that contains waste must not be placed in the residual waste or handed over for packaging recycling. If you have packaging with the contents left, you are responsible for emptying it before handing it in for recycling.
Read more in the Environmental Protection Agency’s guidance (in swedish only)
❚ Leave the packaging loose
The packaging must not be left in sacks or bags. With properly sorted and emptied packaging, the possibility of recycling increases. By fulfilling the points above, the risk of the facility refusing to accept your waste is also reduced.
❚ Bottles and metal cans with a deposit must be returned to the return system
Prevent packaging waste in your business
The most important step in the waste ladder is to prevent waste from occurring. You can work to prevent packaging waste in your business by answering the following three questions:
- What packaging waste do we have?
- Why does the waste occur?
- What can we do to reduce waste?
Kretslopp och vatten, in the City of Gothenburg, in collaboration with other businesses, has produced extensive material with, for example, checklists on preventing waste in various businesses, that you can use.
Prevent waste in the City of Gothenburg (in Swedish only)
Recycling of waste
By leaving end-of-life packaging from your business for recycling, more packaging can be circulated and used again, as new packaging or products.
For every packaging that is recycled, we get closer to the recycling targets. Recycling reduces the need for natural resources, lowers total energy consumption and does not cause unnecessary emissions when burning waste.
The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish Central Statistics Agency (SCB) annually publish national statistics for the recycling of packaging in Sweden. There are currently no separate statistics on the recycling rate for business packaging.
Recycling of packaging (The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency) (in Swedish only)
Recycling of packaging in Sweden (SCB) (in swedish only)
By March 31, 2025 at the latest, Näringslivets Producentansvar must report to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency how much packaging has been collected and processed during 2024.