Food waste in a green bag. Plastic in purple bag. Residual waste in a normal plastic bag. So easy. But also quite difficult, it has turned out. The last waste analysis for the Renovation and Recycling Agency (REG) in Oslo municipality was done last year. For those concerned with source sorting, the result is disappointing. Most of it is thrown away incorrectly Only half of the food waste in the bin ended up in green bags. And only 30 percent of the plastic waste was thrown into what were then blue bags. “These results mean that there is a great deal of food waste and plastic packaging left in the residual waste which should have been sorted into green and blue bags, and which could potentially have gone to material recycling.” Styrofoam and other things that are thrown loose in the containers are not reflected in the figures. NOK 12,230 Now the agency will have the opportunity to financially punish litter offenders. And they get support from the city council. Next week, they will submit proposals for new waste disposal regulations to the city council. Here they propose to introduce a so-called infringement fee of up to NOK 12,230 for breaking the rules on waste sorting. According to the city council, it must be used “in cases where requirements in the regulations are not complied with, and there is a failure to rectify the situation after a written prosecution”. On the municipality’s website, you can read how to sort waste in Oslo. Not overnight The Swedish Reclamation Agency has no plans to start issuing littering fines any time soon. – We are taking it in now because the Pollution Act allows for it. It did not do so the last time the regulations were changed in 2012. This means that we have the fee as a possibility in the future, says legal advisor Mari Anne Brakestad. Thus, they believe there is no major change. Communications adviser Jørgen Bakke Fredriksen says that the agency has recommended several measures to improve source sorting. – It is not good enough, we are open to that. One big move is to introduce a separate container for food waste instead of a colored bag. The second is a sorting facility that can open the residual waste and sort out the plastic waste – These are long-term measures, as is the possible use of the infringement fee. On the whole, we look more at the carrot than the whip, says Fredriksen. CORRECT: Food waste in a green bag. Plastic in purple bag. Residual waste in a normal plastic bag. Photo: Oslo Municipality Stopped ten years ago The waste regulations have not been revised since 2012, the year waste sorting was introduced throughout Oslo. Even then, the agency wanted the opportunity to punish litter offenders. Then they did not gain traction politically. Among others, Obos was strongly opposed. They believed that the proposal smacked of collective punishment and that a fine system was in practice impossible to follow up in housing associations and other places with shared waste containers. Obos says the same thing today. They support the desire for people to become smarter, but believe that a fee is the wrong way to go. Affects the innocent – This will typically affect an innocent majority who are good at sorting their waste, says communications director Thomas Skjennald. – The boards of the housing associations, which usually do not have their own caretaker or full-time employees, also have no real opportunity to enforce waste sorting beyond encouraging the residents to follow the rules, he says. Mari Anne Brakestad in the waste management and recycling agency says that they fully understand these challenges. She repeats that there are no plans to introduce the fee today. Already today, there is an opportunity to issue fines in more serious cases. This applies if someone throws rubbish in a way that is unsightly or dangerous to the environment and thus a breach of the Pollution Act.
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Oslo municipality will issue fines for throwing rubbish in the wrong bag – news Oslo og Viken – Local news, TV and radio
