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Extended producer responsibility for certain tobacco products and filters

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Last reviewed: ‎12‎ ‎February‎ ‎2024

On this page you can find information about who is defined as a producer, how a producer is covered by the regulations and in what way, and how a producer can fulfil their producer responsibilities.

The purpose of producer responsibility is to reduce the littering of cigarette butts.

If your business manufactures or sells filters or tobacco products with filters in Sweden, you are likely covered by producer responsibility and must register as a producer at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

Target group

Operators, such as manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and shops, as well as those providing a producer responsibility organisation.

Good to know

The content at this site is updated continuously.

EU´s directive and guidance

News

As the Ordinance (2021:998) on Producer Responsibility for Certain Tobacco Products and Filters came into force on 1 January 2023, producer responsibility organisations are responsible for the collection of cigarette butts in all of Sweden's municipalities. Read more under "Municipalities" below.

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has received a notification regarding producer responsibility organisation from SUP Filter Producentansvar AB. The notification includes a short description of the business as well as a description of how the requirements on the producer responsibility organisation shall be met.

More information regarding the producer responsibility organisation can be found here:

SUP Filter Producentansvar Sverige AB

A producer must pay littering fees to the Swedish EPA if the producer place filters or tobacco products with filters on the Swedish market. The fee consists of one fixed fee and one variable fee. A draft with regulations deciding the size of the product fee has gone out for referral September 4 2023. The regulations determine the product fee as per product category for 2024. Last day to respond to the referral is October 30. 

Please note that from 2023 the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency have new IBAN and bankgiro numbers on notices relating to producer responsibility.

  • 5981-6918
    Notices regarding regulatory fees for electrical equipment, batteries, packaging, wet wipes, fishing gear, balloons, tobacco filters, PRO and the product fee for littering.
  • 5981-6843
    Notices regarding cadmium charges, return system and the annual fee for littering.

Notices will be sent in the autumn.

Targets for reduced littering

Producers of certain tobacco products and filters are obliged to effectively contribute to achieving the target that outdoor littering should be reduced by 50 percent by 2030 compared to 2023.

The target for reduced littering will be followed up through litter measurements carried out by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency from 2023 and every other year thereafter. If it appears from the litter measurements that there is a risk that the target will not be achieved in time, further measures may be necessary.

Producer representative for businesses outside Sweden

If you as a producer of certain tobacco products or filters are established in Sweden and sell wet wipes to another country in the European Economic Area (EEA) where your company is not established, you must appoint a producer representative in that country. The representative shall be responsible for your obligations in that country.

If you are a producer and not established in Sweden, you may appoint a producer representative established in Sweden. If a representative is not appointed, you are responsible for your obligations in Sweden. If you choose to appoint a representative, this must be done through a written power of attorney. The representative will then be responsible for your obligations according to the Ordinance (2021:998) on producer responsibility for certain tobacco products and filters and the Ordinance (2021:1002) on littering fees. 

The representative in Sweden must register with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. You who intend to register as a producer representative must then send an e-mail to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, kundtjanst@naturvardsverket.se, with the following information:

  • Name of producer representative, contact details and personal or corporate identification number (if not available – tax identification number).
  • A copy of the power of attorney.
  • Name of producer, contact details and tax identification number.
  • Information on which product you as a producer representative will be responsible for.

You also need to log in as a producer representative in the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's e-service and add yourself as a contact person for the producer you are a representative for.

Producer responsibility organisation

As of 1 January 2023, producers of certain tobacco products or filters must hire, or themselves provide, an approved producer responsibility organisation. The producer responsibility organisation must meet the requirements in the ordinance on producer responsibility for certain tobacco products and filters and report to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. 

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has received a notification regarding producer responsibility organisation from SUP Filter Producentansvar AB. The notification includes a short description of the business as well as a description of how the requirements on the producer responsibility organisation shall be met. More information regarding the producer responsibility organisation can be found here:

SUP Filter Producentansvar Sverige AB (supfilter.se)

In the producer responsibility of certain tobacco products and filters it is required that the producer responsibility organisation shall:

  • Collect cigarette butts throughout Sweden.
  • Make sure that that those wanting to leave cigarette butts to the organisation can do so easily, and without costs.
  • Contribute to reach the target decreased littering of cigarette butts.
  • Cooperate with other producer responsibility organisations for certain tobacco products and filters on how the costs for collecting and processing the waste shall be distributed.
  • Coordinate the collection of cigarette butts as well as the placement and the design of the collection containers with other producer responsibility organisations for certain tobacco products and filters.
  • Have the economical and organisational resources required to fulfill the obligations according to the ordinance on producer responsibility for certain tobacco products and filters.
  • Take responsibility for that the collected waste undergoes a complete treatment procedure in accordance with 15 chapter 10 § the environmental code. 
  • Be operated in a healthy and environmentally acceptable manner.

Producers must pay compensation to the hired producer responsibility organisation. When determining the amount of the compensation fee, the producer responsibility organisation must take into consideration the amount of filters or tobacco products with filters that the producer has placed on the Swedish market. To ensure this happens the producer responsibility organisation must establish routines for internal control. Routines for internal control must also be established in order to ensure the quality on the records that the producer responsibility organisation yearly must provide to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, and that the requirements in the Regulation (EU) (1013/2006) on transportation and waste are met.

A producer responsibility organisation must treat all producers equally and without conditions that in any way can discriminate against any producer, in order to enable all producers to fulfill the requirement on hiring or themselves providing a producer responsibility organisation.

A producer responsibility organisation must make the following information available on its webpage:

  • The owners of the producer responsibility organisation.
  • The producers that are affiliated to the producer responsibility organisation.
  • How the compensation paid by the producers to the producer responsibility organisation is calculated, stated in SEK per sold product, or per ton product that has been placed on the Swedish market. 
  • On what grounds the producer responsibility organisation choses to hire actors to manage waste.
  • How the producer responsibility organisation’s business contributes to reach the goal of reduced littering.

The above stated information must be made available in order to establish transparency in the market. It allows producers, among others, to form an opinion on how the fees that the producers pay to the producer responsibility organisation are being calculated and can therefore determine whether they are treated equally.

The producer responsibility for certain tobacco products and filters includes that producer responsibility organisations must collect cigarette butts outdoors in places where many people normally stay and the municipality has cleaning responsibility, but not where smoking is prohibited. A municipality must facilitate for a producer responsibility organisation for filters and tobacco products with filters to place collection containers in these places. This applies from 1 January 2023. 

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency must be notified if consultation and any agreement has been made with the municipality regarding the collection and waste management of cigarette butts.

An agreement may be made between municipalities and producer responsibility organisations that a municipality instead of a producer responsibility organisation shall collect and process cigarette butts that occur in the municipality. It is the producer responsibility organisation's responsibility to notify the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency of the content of the agreement in cases where an agreement has been made.

It is also the responsibility of the producer responsibility organisations to consult with municipalities about the collection of the waste. What should at least be discussed during the consultation are suitable places for placing collection containers, how many containers should be provided, how the containers should be designed and how often the containers should be emptied. A summary of what arose during the consultation must be communicated by the producer responsibility organisation to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

A producer responsibility organisation for filters and tobacco products with filters must register with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency before operations begin. The business can start operating on January 1, 2023 at the earliest.

Applications can be submitted from July 1, 2022. 

Notifications are sent to The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency

The notification is sent to registrator@naturvardsverket.se or to:

Naturvårdsverket 
Producentansvarsenheten
106 48 Stockholm   

The notification must be signed by an authorized signatory.

The notification to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency must contain the following information

  • producer responsibility organisation name and address
  • organisation number of the producer responsibility organisation or, if such does not exist, the tax registration number 
  • contact person/representative
  • phone number 
  • email address
  • a brief description of the business and how the requirements in 20–22, 25 and 26 §§ shall be met, see below.

It is the responsibility of the producer responsibility organisation to ensure that the submitted information is up to date. 

Describe the following in the application 

The notification must include a brief description of the business and how the requirements in 20–22, 25 and 26 §§ must be met.

20 § A producer responsibility organisation must collect cigarette butts in outdoor locations, if 

  1. many people normally stay there, and
  2. the municipality has responsibility for cleaning the site according to 2 and 4 §§ of the law (1998:814) with special provisions on street maintenance and signage. The cigarette butts must be collected to the extent necessary to prevent littering and which is reasonable based on the circumstances on the site. 

21 § A producer responsibility organisation may not collect cigarette butts in places where smoking is prohibited according to the law (2018:2088) on tobacco and similar products. 

22 § A producer responsibility organisation shall 

  1. collect cigarette butts all over the country
  2. make sure that whoever wants to leave a cigarette butt to the organisation can do so easily and without charge
  3. effectively contribute to reaching the goal for reduced littering of cigarette butts stated in 13 §
  4. cooperate with other producer responsibility organisations for filters and tobacco products with filters on how the costs of collecting and handling the waste should be distributed, 
  5. coordinate the collection of cigarette butts and the location and design of the collection containers with other producer responsibility organisations for filters and tobacco products with filters
  6. have the financial and organisational resources required to fulfill the obligations under this ordinance
  7. be responsible for the collected waste undergoing a complete treatment procedure in accordance with 15 chapter 10 § of the Environmental Code, and
  8. be operated in a healthy and environmentally acceptable manner.

25 § A producer responsibility organisation must give producers, regardless of size and origin, the opportunity to fulfill the requirement in 19 §, without conditions that discriminate against any producer.

26 § When calculating the compensation that a producer responsibility organisation collects from an individual producer, the producer responsibility organisation must take into account the amount of filters or tobacco products with filters that the producer places on the Swedish market.

Municipalities

A producer responsibility organisation shall collect cigarette butts in outdoor locations if: 

  1. A large number of people normally reside there, and
  2. The municipality shall be responsible for cleaning on the site in accordance with Sections 2 and 4 of the Law (1998:814) with special provisions on street cleaning and signage. 

The cigarette butts must be collected to the extent necessary to counteract littering and that is reasonable based on the circumstances at the site.

A producer responsibility organisation may agree with a municipality that it will fulfil the obligations in the Ordinance (2021:998) on producer responsibility for certain tobacco products and filters instead of the producer responsibility organisation. 

If such an agreement is reached between the municipality and the producer responsibility organisation, the municipality must provide the producer responsibility organisation with information on the estimated weight of cigarette butts collected during the immediately preceding calendar year no later than 15 February each year.

The municipality has no obligation to sign an agreement with a producer responsibility organisation, and if no agreement is signed, they also have no obligation to report data to the producer responsibility organisation.

However, a producer responsibility organisation must consult with the municipalities on the collection of cigarette butts, regardless of whether the municipality has signed an agreement with the producer responsibility organisation or not. The consultation shall cover at least:

  • suitable locations for the placement of collection containers;
  • the number of collection containers to be provided;
  • the design of the collection containers and
  • how often the collection containers should be emptied. 

The consultation takes place at the initiative of the producer responsibility organisation.

Furthermore, the municipalities are obliged to make it easier for a producer responsibility organisation to place collection containers in the places and to the extent required by the regulation. However, it is the responsibility of the producer responsibility organisation to ensure that the collection takes place.

Labeling

Tobacco products with filters must be labelled with a clear and standardized label showing that the product contains plastic, how the product should be handled when it becomes waste and showing the product's negative environmental effects. The purpose of the labelling requirement is to inform consumers about proper disposal to reduce littering.

Products must be labelled when they are placed on the Swedish market and it is the producers of the products who are responsible for ensuring that they are labelled. The information message on the label shall be written in the official language or languages of the Member State(s) where the single-use plastic product is placed on the market. This means that products placed on markets in Sweden must be labelled in Swedish.

On 17 December 2020, the European Commission laid down in the EU Regulation on labelling (EU 2020/2151) how the label should look and be placed. You can find the information here:

Commission Implementing Regulation (europa.eu)

Please note that there are mistranslations in the above regulation correction is available here:

Rättelse till förordningen (in Swedish)

Print original in vectorized form is available here:

Marking specifications for single-use plastic products (Pictograms in vectorised format)

Register

In order to know which producers provide filters and tobacco products with filters on the Swedish market, all producers of these, as of January 1, 2023, must register with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. Producers intending to place filters and tobacco products with filters on the Swedish market from January 1, 2023, must register from November 2022. 

The registration must be made before filters and tobacco products with filters are placed on the Swedish market via the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's e-service. The notification must contain the following information:

• Name of producer.

• Contact details.

• Personal or corporate identification number (if not available – tax identification number). If you are a producer and are not established in Sweden but sell directly to final users in Sweden, enter your VAT number instead. 

• How the producer intends to meet the requirement to hire or themselves provide a producer responsibility organisation.

Announce changes

It is the producer's responsibility that the submitted information is up to date and you are obliged to notify the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency as soon as possible of any changes in the information provided. You can make changes yourself in the Environmental Protection Agency's e-service.

If, however, you consider that you are no longer a producer, you must send an e-mail to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, kundtjanst@naturvardsverket.se, with the following information:

  • Company name and organisation number.
  • The reason why you no longer consider yourself a producer and the date from which you consider your producer responsibility to end or have ended. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency will assess whether, and if so when, your producer responsibility should be considered to cease or have ceased. 

E-service producer responsibility

Companies and organisations affected by producer responsibility can submit (or update) their information to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency via the e-service for producer responsibility.

Report data to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency

From the year 2023, producers of certain tobacco products and filters must report to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency every year by March 31 at the latest. The reporting must be done in the Environmental Protection Agency's e-service. The reporting must contain information on how many products a producer has released on the Swedish market during the immediately preceding calendar year. The first calendar year to be included in the reporting is 2022. To ensure the quality of this data, producers must create routines for internal control.

The reason why producers must report to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is so that Sweden can live up to the requirements found in the EU's single-use plastics directive, Article 8 on extended producer responsibility and Article 13 on information systems and reporting. The information to be submitted when reporting is used to determine the right product fee to the right producer.

According to the Single Use Plastics Directive (EU) all member states must provide the EU commission with information on the amount of cigarette butts that have been littered, cleaned up, and collected in collector containers. Therefor producer responsibility organisations for filters and certain tobacco products with filters shall, as of 2024, report annually to the Swedish Environmental Agency no later than March 31 the amount of cigarette butts (in kilograms) that has been collected. The first calendar year to be reported is 2023. 

Municipalities and producer responsibility organisations can agree on that the municipality instead of the producer responsibility organisation shall collect and process cigarette butts. If such an agreement has been made the municipality shall provide the producer responsibility organisation with information on estimated weight of the cigarette butts that has been collected the previous year. The reporting should be made by the municipality to the producer responsibility organisation no later than February 15 each year.

Fees

The littering fees consist of a fixed annual fee and a variable product fee.

Annual fee

The annual fee for producers placing tobacco products with filters on the Swedish market is SEK 3 000 per producer and calendar year. 

The annual fee for producers placing filters on the Swedish market is SEK 500 per producer and calendar year. 

Product fee

The product fee must be paid per producer and calendar year starting from the year 2024.

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency determines the size of the product fee per product category, but the final size of the product fee for each producer depends on how many products the producer released on the Swedish market during the previous calendar year. Once the size of the product fee is decided, the amount will be updated.

Purpose of littering fees

Littering fees are introduced in Sweden according to the polluter pays principle. Anyone who puts certain single-use plastic products on the market must be involved in paying the municipality's cleaning costs.

Littering fees for some producers

The supervisory fee is SEK 10 000 per producer and calendar year and SEK 100 000 per producer responsibility organisation and calendar year.

The supervisory fee is used to maintain a digital register of all producers and in order to ensure compliance with regulations.

The provisions on the enforcement fee are set out in Chapter 7. Section 8 j and 8k §§ of the Ordinance (1998:940) on fees for testing and enforcement under the Environmental Code.

Sanctions

If an operator has not complied with the legislation, it may have to pay an environmental sanction fee. An environmental sanction fee is an administrative fee that is charged by a supervisory authority when an operator has infringed a fee-based provision under the Environmental Code, or the regulations that have been decided on the basis of the Environmental Code. 

In the event of an infringement of some of the new regulations regarding single-use products, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, as a supervisory authority, will charge environmental sanction fees. The infringements that shall result in an environmental sanction fee based on the regulation on certain tobacco products and filters are set out in Chapter 11, 25-27 §§ of the Ordinance (2012:259) on environmental sanction fees.

In some cases, an operator may have to sell out the stock of unmarked products that are subject to labeling requirements. Whether the products are allowed to be sold depends on whether they are considered to have been placed on the market before 1 January 2022 or not.

An operator may be required to pay an environmental sanction fee of SEK 10 000 if certain tobacco products or filters have been placed on the Swedish market without having provided the product with the required label. This applies from July 4, 2022.

An operator may be required to pay an environmental sanction fee of SEK 20 000 if a producer responsibility organisation hasn’t been hired or provided. This applies from January 1, 2023.

If a producer has submitted information late when registering or reporting to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency it may be required to pay an environmental sanction fee of SEK 10 000. If a producer responsibility organisation has submitted information late when reporting, it may be required to pay an environmental sanction fee of SEK 10 000. This applies from January 1, 2023.

If an operation has not complied with the legislation above, the operator may have to pay an environmental sanction fee. In that case you will receive a letter from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency with a proposal for a decision on an environmental sanction fee. We send this letter as a notification to you that we are considering imposing an environmental sanction fee on the company.

You will have the opportunity to comment on the draft decision within the time specified in the letter. This means that you can provide information about why you believe that the company should not be charged an environmental sanction fee. Your comment can be sent by letter or e-mail. Valid reasons for not charging an environmental sanction fee are described in Chapter 30, Section 2 of the Environmental Code: 2 § An environmental penalty fee shall be charged even if the infringement has not been committed intentionally or negligently.

However, the fee need not be charged if it would be unreasonable to do so with regard to

  1. illness as a result of which the fee debtor is unable to do the duties incumbent on the person liable to pay the fee on his own or by entrusting the fee debtor
  2. that the infringement was due to a circumstance which could not or should not have been foreseen or beyond the control of the fee debtor
  3. what the fee debtor has done to avoid an infringement occurring, or
  4. that the infringement has given rise to punishment in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 29.

The environmental penalty fee shall accrue to the State. Law (2006:1014).

If you choose not to comment, or if the information you provided cannot form the basis for not charging an environmental sanction fee, you will receive a decision on an environmental sanction fee.

The decision contains information on when and how you should pay the environmental sanction fee. You pay the environmental sanction fee to Kammarkollegiet (Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency) and it goes to the state. You will receive the decision together with a service receipt that the authorized person must date, sign and send back to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

You can appeal against the decision within three weeks of the date you received the decision.

Definitions

A producer of certain tobacco products and filters is defined as one who professionally

  1. brings in filters or tobacco products with filters to Sweden
  2. manufactures filters or tobacco products with filters in Sweden, or
  3. from a country other than Sweden sells filters or tobacco products with filters to an end user in Sweden.

According to ordinance (2021:998) on producer responsibility for certain tobacco products and filters tobacco products are defined as products that are consumed and completely or partly consist of leaves and other natural, processed or unprocessed parts of the tobacco plant.

The main product specific criteria to determine whether a tobacco product with filter, or a filter that is being marketed for use in combination with a tobacco product, is covered by the scope of the directive on single-use plastic are as follows:

  • The product is a tobacco product (according to the definition in article 2.4 directive 2014/40/EU) and the product contains a filter, for example a cigarette or a cigar.
  • The product is a separate filter to use with tobacco products, for example a filter or a mini filter.

For clarifying examples, see Table 4.23 (page 42-43) of the Commission guidance on single-use plastic products:

Commission guidance on single-use plastic products (europa.eu)

Filters refer to filters that are single-use plastic products and are being marketed for use with tobacco products or used in combination with tobacco products.

A single-use plastic product is usually intended to be used only once, or for a short time, before it becomes waste. According to the Single-Use Products Regulation, a single-use plastic product is a product that consists completely or partly of plastic and that has not been designed, constructed or placed on the Swedish market to be reused several times during its life cycle by being refilled or reused for the same purpose for which it was designed. 

For more information about the definition of single-use plastic product, see:

Single-use plastic products and other disposable products

A plastic is defined under the Single Use Plastics Directive as a material consisting of a polymer according to the REACH Regulation, to which additives or other substances may have been added. It can be used as the main structural component of final products. Natural polymers that have not been chemically modified are excluded.

Plastics made from modified natural polymers are covered by the Directive. The same applies to plastics made from bio-based, fossil or synthetic raw materials. Biodegradable plastics and polymer-based rubber articles are also covered by the Directive.

In general, a polymer obtained from an industrial process is defined as a modified polymer even if it occurs naturally in nature. This means that a polymer produced by biosynthesis in synthetic culture and fermentation processes, such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), is counted as a modified natural polymer.

A polymer that, on the other hand, is produced in nature and then extracted from nature for further processing is counted as a natural polymer. One example is the extraction of cellulose, which is then regenerated into viscose. Viscose and lyocell are therefore excluded from the scope of the Directive. Clarifications to the definition of plastic in the Directive can be found in the Commission's guidance on single-use plastic products:

Commission guidance on single-use plastic products (europa.eu)

Placing a product on the market means making a product available on the market in a Member State for the first time. Making a product available means making a product available for distribution, consumption or use on the market of a Member State in the course of a commercial activity. It does not matter if the product is in return for payment, or free of charge.

Products from the EU are re-placed on the market in Sweden

In accordance with the Single Use Plastics Directive, placing on the market in Sweden means that a single-use plastic product is made available on the market in Sweden for the first time. This is in contrast to the definition in the Blue Guide (Commission guidance to EU product regulations 2016/C 272/01) where placing on the market is defined as taking place when the product is made available on the Union market for the first time, which means that it is sufficient that the product has been made available for the first time in one of the EU Member States to be considered to have been placed on the market in Sweden as well.

EU Commissions FAQ

The Commission has compiled questions and answers on the concept of placing on the market in the Single Use Plastics Directive. The document has not been adopted or approved by the European Commission and is therefore not an official position. However, it can be used as an aid in assessing whether a product has been placed on the market or not. The document can be found here: 

Placing on the market (pdf)

Related guidance