Swedish Language Blog

Have you ever heard of “Allemansrätten”? Translated to english we would call it something along the lines of “Right of Public Access”.

It is almost universally seen as a symbol for Sweden, or maybe at least for most of Europe’s nordic countries. The right to walk freely in the woods, (even private ones) picking berries and mushrooms, camping on somebody’s land but not in their backyard, all of these are rights most Swedes have grown up almost taking for granted. What children in Sweden are taught about common conduct in nature, can be summarized as “stör inte, förstör inte” meaning “don’t disturb, don’t destroy”. In essence plain commonsense. In elementary school most classes do group work about “Allemansrätten” talking about what it actual implications of what our rights are.

Many Swedes, myself included, have great appreciation for this right and use it more than we actually realize. I have proudly told many of my friends in other countries about all the privileges and of course about the responsibilities that come with them. How on a brisk autumn day I can simply walk, walk and walk. Not really having to think about my destination or who owns the land. If I have brought a basket with me I can pick berries or mushrooms, and when I feel tired I can just sit down and have a little break with a thermos full of hot chocolate.

For me, this is one of the best things about Sweden. As a Swede, growing up with this wonderful privilege I have probably never stopped to consider that this is actually something unique and special.

In recent years berry companies have sent out so many people to pick berries in the woods, that many consider this to be an act of exploitation of “Right to Public Access”. Moreover, orienteering events and competitions are held on such a large scale that the forests actually get damaged. The problem with the legislation “Right to public access” is that it is so vague that there is nothing really preventing companies and larger organizations from behaving similarly to individuals, even if the consequences are more severe.

Many countries all over the world have recently banned free plastic bags (plastpåse) in grocery stores, including in Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, France and many more. Kenya, certain parts of India, Bangladesh and Taiwan have even banned plastic cutlery in some cases. Sweden has not. According to Hannes Borg, employee at the Ministry of Environment, Sweden has no reason to.

The reasoning being one that, Sweden has a law saying that all producers have the responsibility to take care of the waste of their product. They have to by law, offer their customers some sort of possibility to recycle the containers of the bought product. The producer responsibility (producentansvar) has been applied to 6 different areas; packaging, waste paper, batteries, electric and electronic devices, cars and tires. The customer also has an obvious responsibility to sort and return the remnants of the packaging.

Consequently, there are no rules for a product like a dish-brush, since nobody has payed for the dish-brush to be specially “taken care of”. That is also one of the reasons why only packaging is recycled in Sweden. Other plastic materials, for example, are usually incinerated with the rest of the garbage.

When one of Sweden’s most established newspapers SvD (Svenska Dagbladet) interviewed Svante Axelsson, secretary general for the environmental organization “The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation” (SSNC) (Svenska Naturskyddsföreningen) even he said that a ban on plastic bags would be more of a symbolic action. He however pointed out, that it is not good to consume plastic, and any unnecessary consumption of plastic bags should be avoided. SSNC hope consumers will bring their own cloth bags with them when they do their shopping instead.

After learning that “environmentally friendly” Sweden, in faith that their producer responsibility law will be enough to stop mass pollution, has not banned plastic bags, do you think the right decision has been made? Which would in your opinion be the more efficient way to prevent environmental damage?

If you are interested in reading an article on the subject (although it is in Swedish) this is the link to SvD’s (Svenska Daglbladet’s) homepage:

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/plastpasen-forbjuds-men-inte-i-sverige_759345.svd

It’s funny the things which you notice sometimes. Just the other day I moved into an apartment, one that was built quite a few years back. The linoleum floors, the big windows and the kitchen were the things I noticed, but what I noticed most of all was that under the kitchen sink there was no recycling storage. Noticing that, I thought “wow this apartment is old”. Nowadays all the apartments that are built are influenced by what this age’s Sweden stands for. We have agreed that recycling is something good, and so decisions have gradually been made to make it easier for people who rent housing to be able to recycle in the garbage room, as well as leave compost bags. The paper bags are left in huge piles in the common garbage room for people to take when they need them. Though it is still the private individual’s responsibility to make sure that dangerous waste gets left at a special recycling station.

Sweden is good about reusing and recycling in a lot of ways I think. The special recycling stations are in Swedish called “Återvinningscentral”. Usually people load big trailers filled with junk and they drive up to the containers to sort the stuff into the right containers. Different categories are burnable, cardboard, electronics, styrofoam and wood amongst other things. There are special spots for paint, light bulbs and other dangerous or poisonous matter, as well as garden waste like cut grass and branches.

 Not so long ago recycling wasn’t anything people were so interested in, and not at all something natural like nowadays.