Plastic in Sweden – from production to recycling
Achieving sustainable plastic use requires reducing plastic consumption, increasing product reuse, and improving plastic recycling. This, in turn, calls for better knowledge about how plastic is used and what happens to plastic waste. Currently, many plastic flows remain relatively linear, following a cradle-to-grave model in which a large share is incinerated. The overarching goal is to shift towards more circular plastic flows – prioritising prevention, reuse, and material recycling – in order to reduce the need for virgin fossil-based plastic production.
To ensure that plastic is used where it delivers the greatest benefit, well-informed decisions must be made. This requires a solid understanding of the current situation – including how plastic is used, the volumes of plastic waste generated, how this waste is managed, and the most significant sources and pathways through which plastic enters the environment. To support this, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has conducted a comprehensive mapping of plastic flows in Sweden. The figures below are drawn from the mapping published in 2025, based on data from the year 2023.
A short version of the report is found here:
How much plastic waste is generated?
Plastic that is produced and used will eventually wear out and become waste, which must be collected and treated. Across various plastic flows, different quantities and types of plastic waste are generated. For the mapped product-specific flows – not including mixed ones – the total amount of plastic waste in Sweden was approximately 636,000 tonnes.
In the mixed flows, the amount of plastic is estimated at approximately 1,069,000 tonnes, mainly originating from households and businesses. Altogether, this amounts to approximately 1.7 million tonnes of plastic waste in Swedish waste flows in 2023 (excluding imported waste).
The product-specific flow generating the most plastic waste is packaging, with approximately 307,000 tonnes in 2023, including recyclable PET bottles.
The construction sector is a major user of plastic and generated around 208,000 tonnes of plastic waste in 2023. It is followed by the automotive and tyre industries, which generated approximately 69,000 tonnes in the same year. These are the largest flows that can be clearly traced to a specific product group or source.
There are also flows that generate large volumes of plastic waste but stem from multiple, less well-defined sources. For example, the category “mixed commercial waste and sorting residues” generated around 387,000 tonnes of plastic waste in 2023, while “sorted plastic waste from the manufacturing industry” accounted for approximately 279,000 tonnes.
How is plastic waste handled?
The method used to treat plastic waste varies depending on the type of plastic, the type of product, and the conditions for sorting and collection. Certain plastics and products are specifically designed, both in terms of material properties and intended use, to be suitable for material recycling into new plastic products. Examples of plastic streams that include such recyclable products are packaging, selected construction materials, and some plastic components from vehicles. These often consist of the polymers PP (used in food packaging and car parts), soft or hard PE (such as agricultural film), PET (beverage bottles), and certain forms of PVC commonly found in construction products (floors and pipes).
In 2023, approximately 141,000 tonnes of the plastic waste in Sweden were materially recycled in 2023. This corresponds to about 8 percent of the mapped Swedish plastic waste flows (excluding imported waste for energy recovery) and just under 13 percent of the total amount of plastic raw material placed on the Swedish market in the same year. However, the actual recycling rate may be underestimated. If sorted plastic waste from industry and imported green-listed plastic waste (both relatively clean flows) are also assumed to be materially recycled, the recycling rate could reach around 25 percent of the mapped Swedish plastic waste flows. That said, there is a lack of detailed information about how these additional flows are handled.
The most common method of material recycling today is mechanical recycling. This process involves sorting the plastic waste by type, washing it, and shredding it into flakes or granules that can be melted down and used to manufacture new products. Another method under development is chemical recycling, in which the polymer chains in plastics are broken down and reassembled into new polymers. This technology is typically adapted to the specific type of plastic waste being processed.
Energy recovery is also a widely used treatment method, where plastic waste, often mixed with other types of waste, is incinerated and the resulting energy is recovered for district heating or industrial use. This pathway is used, for example, when materials are unsuitable for recycling due to contamination or composite structures. These may include single-use products from the healthcare sector, demolition waste from construction, car tyres, and mixed commercial or operational waste.
In 2023, more than 1.2 million tonnes of plastic from domestic waste flows were sent to Swedish waste-to-energy plants. In addition, approximately 93,300 tonnes of plastic and rubber waste were used as fuel in the Swedish cement industry. A further 451,000 tonnes of plastic in imported waste were also incinerated at Swedish waste-to-energy facilities.