Packaging recycling for a more sustainable society

About producer responsibility and FTI’s services to ensure that your company’s packaging is collected and recycled into new products.

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“We’re not afraid of tough recycling targets,” says Kent Carlsson, CEO of Förpacknings- och Tidningsinsamlingen AB (FTI).

Producer responsibility – a statutory obligationWe all have to work together to create a more sustainable society. If your company produces, brings or imports packaging into the Swedish market, sells packaging or a packaged item on the Swedish market, you are responsible for collecting and recycling the packaging. The basic concept is to reduce the amount of waste, but also to ensure that the waste that occurs after all is recycled and recovered. By affiliating your company with the Packaging and Newspaper Collection Service (FTI), you are meeting your statutory responsibility to collect your packaging materials. And ensuring that the material is recycled!

The use of our recycling services is growing as consumers become more environmentally aware.

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If everybody sent their bottle caps to recycling over the course of one year, 2,200 new cars could be made with the recycled steel.

A nationwide collection and recycling systemsSUSTAINABILITY IS A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY

Recycling is a part of everyday life for most people in Sweden – both at home and at work. Reduced energy consumption, lower environmental impact and no mountains of garbage are just some of the benefits of re-using natural resources.

Nine of ten Swedes now sort their packaging and newspapers. Partly because the Swedish company sector has built up a nationwide collection and recycling systems. This, in turn, is regulated by a law introduced in 1994 whereby companies that bring packaging into the Swedish market are also responsible for

ensuring that the packaging is collected and recycled. To help companies comply with their producer responsibility, the Swedish business sector founded a joint organization for the collection and recycling of packaging, now known as the Packaging and Newspaper Collection Service (FTI).

FTI operates and develops a sustainable, nationwide collection and recycling systems for households and companies. When you are affiliated with FTI, you pay the costs incurred by your customers for using the recycling systems, and for recycling the material. You also contribute to a sustainable society and make life easier for your customers.

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Become affiliated with FTI CONSUMERS’ RECYCLING DEMANDS

Swedish consumers – your customers – want to share the responsibility for recycling by sorting their waste. Surveys show that consumers also have demands: recycling should be easy, they want to feel confident that the collected material is actually being recycled, and that the information provided should be easy to understand.

PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY

Producer responsibility for collection and recycling covers all types of packaging and all material categories. Producer responsibility is regulated by the Ordinance on Producer Responsibility for Packaging (Swedish Code of Statutes 2014:1073), which implements the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive.

FTI’s offeringThe starting point for FTI’s recycling systems is that recycling should be easy for consumers (households and companies) – in other words, your customers. Affiliating your company with FTI will also make it easier for you – FTI’s packaging recycling systems helps you meet your legal obligations as a producer.

What FTI does for you:

• collects packaging

• ensures that the collected packaging is recycled effectively

• consults with all of Sweden’s 290 municipalities on the recycling systems

• submits a recycling results report to The Swedish EPA every year

• contributes to the achievement of recycling targets every year

FTI also provides:

• assistance and support for reporting packaging volumes, as well as other matters

• lobbying activities related to producer responsibility together with authorities, sector and umbrella associations.

The Swedish Ordinance stipulates that:

• The recycling system should be appropriate, with accessible collection points that make it easy for anyone who wants to drop-off their packaging waste, without incurring a fee.

• The collection should not result in hazard or harm to health or the environment. It should be conducted in a manner that does not prevent material recovery and contribute to the achievement of recycling targets.

• The recycling system should be nationwide with collection points in each municipality, and a geographic distribution across the municipality that is reasonable in terms of the population density, location of companies and other circumstances.

AS OF 2020, THE RECYCLING SYSTEMS WILL ALSO REQUIRE A PERMIT FROM THE SWEDISH ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY.

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Households can leave their packaging for recycling in the waste-sorting room where they live, or at one of FTI’s recycling stations.

Working together with FTI: You produce, bring or import packaging or a packaged item into, or, fill packaging for, the Swedish market.

FTI operates and develops a sustainable, nationwide recycling systems for used packaging and ensures that the collected packaging is recycled into new material.

You pay for the recycling system with fees based on the categories and weights of the various packaging materials. The fee is also determined by the end-user of the packaging, and the type of user who is sorting them for recycling. This is because all packaging has to bear its own costs, and collecting packaging from households is more expensive than collecting from companies.

FTI is responsible for your reporting to The Swedish EPA and also consults with all Swedish municipalities about the local recycling systems.

You are responsible for choosing packaging that is sustainable and recyclable, and that offers effective protection and presentation of your products. You are also helping to achieve the main objective of the Ordinance: to reduce the need for packaging where possible.

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The packaging is transported to collection sites, where it is separated before being sent to a facility for segregation and recycling.

Ketchup bottles can become car parts, bread bags can become boots, yoghurt pots dish brushes and shampoo bottles flower pots. One tonne of hard plastic can be recycled into about 84,000 flower pots.

How packaging moves through the recycling systemHouseholds leave their recyclable packaging waste at the curbside, or at one of FTI’s public recycling stations. Companies engage local waste management contractors to collect their sorted packaging materials. Small companies can also leave their packaging waste at a drop-off point designated by FTI for companies.

WHAT HAPPENS TO PLASTIC PACKAGING?

Each recycling process is different, depending on the material, but the basic principle and steps are essentially the same. After one or more separation processes, fibers are separated, steel/aluminum is melted or crushed, plastic materials are granulated and then sold to companies that produce new packaging or other products. An ice cream container might become a dish brush, a shampoo bottle might be recovered as flooring.

A non-profit organizationFTI is a non-profit organisation, with no distribution of surplus income to its owners. The collected material is sold at the best price. The sale covers some of the recycling systems’ costs. The fees paid by your company cover the rest. The currently applicable fees are available at www.ftiab.se/fees.

WHAT IS THE MONEY USED FOR?

• establishing, operating, cleaning and collecting from recycling stations for households and drop-off points for companies

• subsidizing curbside collection services for households

• transportation

• sorting and recycling

• information campaigns – to encourage more households to recycle

• administration and information about the recycling system. This includes annual consultation with all Swedish municipalities and reporting recycling results to The Swedish EPA

• permit fees

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Thank you for your affiliation with FTI

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Visit www.ftiab.se/affiliation for more detailed information about how to become affiliated with FTI, and what it involves.

There are several ways to report packaging volumes and you can choose the method that works best for your company. One method is to enter the packaging weights for each item into your computer system to produce reports. You can also base your volumes on the amount of packaging purchased from your suppliers, or the documentation they provide. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you need more assistance with reporting.

THE GREEN DOT AND EUROPEAN COLLABORATION

The Green Dot trademark is an internationally recognized symbol, and indicates that the packaging is included in a recycling system. FTI issues licenses for companies that want to use the trademark in Sweden. Similar schemes are in place across Europe. The trademark is not mandatory in Sweden.

MORE ABOUT FTI

FTI is owned by five materials companies: Plastkretsen, Metallkretsen, Returkartong, Svensk Glasåtervinning and Pressretur.

If you have glass packaging, contact Svensk Glasåtervinning directly for information about your packaging fees. Beverage containers with deposit refunds are handled by Returpack.

For more information, please contact FTI’s marketing department by e-mail: kund@ftiab.se or phone: +46 8 566 144 49

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FTI Marketing Department Customer Service telephone: 0200-88 03 10, e-mail: kund@ftiab.seTelephone, FTI switchboard: +46 (0)8-566 144 00, www.ftiab.se

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As part of efforts to conserve the earth’s resources and reduce the growing mountain of waste, the EU has introduced a packaging and packaging waste directive that entails that producers are themselves responsible for ensuring that the packaging entering the market is also collected and recycled.

In Sweden, the company community has met its packaging commitments by joining forces to create the Packaging and Newspaper Collection Service (FTI). By affiliating your company with FTI, you are meeting your producer responsibility for the collection and recycling of paper, plastic and metal packaging. FTI provides a national recycling system for households and companies. Packaging materials are recycled.

There are now 5,800 recycling stations in Sweden’s 290 municipalities. More than 1.4 million Swedish households also have access to curbside collection services subsidized by FTI.

Companies engage local waste management contractors to collect their sorted packaging materials. Small companies can also leave their packaging waste at a drop-off point designated by FTI for companies.

FTI’s assignment is to operate and develop sustainable systems for collection and materials recycling. FTI is a non-profit organization, with no distribution of profit to its owners.