Here are examples from garbage rooms where people have placed items on the floor. The penalty fee is particularly high for this because the garbage truck driver has to pick up and carry the waste.
To ensure proper documentation, sorting errors or abuse are now photographed whenever possible. This follows a recent case where a homeowner successfully appealed a fine in court due to lack of photographic evidence of his "offence", highlighting the need for municipalities to prove missorting.
Responding to Norran reader inquiries, municipality waste manager Agneta Lantto-Forsgren clarified that garbage truck drivers don't rummage through individual bags.
Instead, they report readily apparent sorting mistakes visible during bin emptying, such as packaging in the wrong bin or residual household waste in the brown food waste bin. Over 565 fines were issued for such errors in 2023, with some repeat offenders incurring monthly penalties of 500 kronor.
Here are three examples of people putting the wrong items in brown bins. In the middle, someone has placed paper and glass packaging, and the two on the sides appear to contain residual household waste.
Examples provided to Norran, showing both residential houses and apartment buildings, confirm the prevalence of these mistakes.
Overfilled bins, while not directly penalized, pose additional challenges, attracting birds and risking spillage. Lantto-Forsgren urged residents to fill bins only to the point where lids close securely, emphasizing both hygiene and safety concerns for workers.
Apartment buildings appear particularly affected, facing both higher rates of missorting fines and penalties for "garbage outside the bin" (1,300 kronor per cubic meter). Lantto-Forsgren suggests this may be due to a perceived lack of personal responsibility when fines don't directly impact residents. That said, the burden ultimately falls on property owners, who may pass the cost onto tenants through rent increases.
Yet another example of garbage outside the bins.
Houseowners, however, will not be fined if there is garbage outside the dustbin; the garbage will simply be left uncollected. If you want it picked up, you have to make a request, put it in a bag, and you'll be charged 65 kronor.
Additionally, misguided cost-saving measures such as infrequent emptying or insufficient bins can contribute to the problem. The municipality offers a flexible fee system for apartments, allowing customization of emptying frequency and number of bins. Sone property owners try to save money by having too few bins being emptied too infrequently.
Overflowing containers outdoors risk birds scavenging and spreading garbage around. These bins were also sorted incorrectly.
Looking ahead, next year's new waste system aims to simplify sorting by allowing residents to sort newspapers and packaging at home, potentially reducing errors. Lantto-Forsgren expresses optimism, aligning this change with broader EU reform efforts and resident preferences for convenience over trips to recycling stations.
– I am convinced that garbage missortings will decrease with the new system. This is also why the EU decided to reform the system. We need to make it easy to do the right thing, and it is clear from our photos that people don't like going to a recycling station, says Lantto-Forsgren.
Agneta Lantto-Forsgren believes that the future waste disposal system will solve the problem of missorting, as people will be able to sort packaging, plastic, metals, etc., at home. Here, she is showcasing the new bins.