Recycling of packaging from businesses

As the largest producer responsibility organization, NPA is responsible for arranging collection points throughout the country, where companies and businesses can drop off their packaging waste free of charge.

In parallel with this collection system, there is currently a well-functioning collection system thanks to private actors, so-called market-driven systems for material recycling. They collect packaging waste with material value, such as corrugated cardboard, from companies for a fee. The material can then be sold on the world market.

Since the private actors take care of the high-quality material, the material that currently enters the collection points is often of low quality, which makes it more difficult to recycle materials and sell them on the market.

However, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency proposes in its second interim report on the PPWR adaptation of Swedish law that the largest producer responsibility organization should also operate a system for collecting packaging waste, in addition to operating the collection points. This would mean that today’s private actors must be approved by the responsible producer responsibility organization in order to continue with that activity.

The proposal was open for comment until April 3, 2026, and the NPA has submitted a comment response.

Read NPA’s consultation response (in Swedish)

Read the submitted proposal (in Swedish)

The collection points are located in every municipality across the country. In some counties, there are large distances between the sites, for example between sparsely populated municipalities. This means that the material needs to be transported long distances from the collections point to facilities for processing the material. In some locations, the system therefore generates very low climate benefit due to long transports of small volumes of low-quality material, which in many cases cannot be recycled but goes directly to energy extraction through incineration.

The system with collections points is relatively new, the sites were established in 2024 and 2025. Therefore, the volumes that have come in so far are relatively small, a factor that also affects the benefit of and the possibility of transporting material for recycling. Over time, the system will likely need to be developed and adjusted, as it begins to be used to a greater extent. This will allow us to learn more about what works and about the material that comes in.

The most important factor for more packaging waste from businesses to be recycled is that companies and businesses actually sort their packaging to a significantly higher degree than today. The report “Composition of business waste sent for incineration”, which IVL has produced on behalf of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, shows that a third of the waste that businesses send for incineration could have been recycled. The majority of the waste consists of plastic and paper packaging.

Read the report “Composition of business waste sent for incineration” (in Swedish)

Each year, just over 150,000 tonnes of plastic waste is generated in the construction sector, of which less than one percent is sorted and recycled. Many companies are not aware that plastic should be sorted. In addition, it is rare for plastic products and plastic packaging to be sorted separately.

Large volumes of plastic packaging are also sent for incineration in healthcare and social care. In addition to the difficulty in separating products from packaging, there is also a challenge in separating plastic packaging that is contaminated with infectious or pharmaceutical substances from plastic packaging that can be recycled.

In 2026, NPA will work to increase awareness of reception sites with companies and businesses with packaging waste, with the aim of increasing volumes and recycling of the material. A key to success is closer cooperation with the municipalities, which already have dialogue and established channels to the municipality’s companies and businesses.

In the construction and civil engineering sector, an important prerequisite for increased recycling is to only hire reputable actors for the collection and handling of waste, and to agree on which fractions should be sorted out for recycling. This will likely require both additional legal requirements and higher requirements in, for example, procurement and the allocation of building rights.

There are good conditions for increased sorting and recycling of plastic packaging in healthcare and social care. On the one hand, the staff is used to working with strict routines and processes, and on the other hand, there are also projects that have shown positive results.

Tightened supervision and higher sanctions for insufficient sorting are additional tools that can affect the recycling rate. Supervision should be directed to a greater extent towards the operations’ source separation, instead of towards the recycling companies that receive the material.