Total waste generation

Waste generation has increased in Sweden since 2010, but the increase has not been linear: 2010–2014 showed a 37% increase, while waste generation dropped in 2014–2020 due to lower amounts of mining waste, which is cyclically sensitive and is affected by the number of construction projects. However, the waste generation per capita in 2022 was still higher than that in 2010 (the base year).

Most of the waste generated in Sweden, around 86%, is major mineral waste from the mining industry. In 2022, when excluding major mineral waste, 22.6 Mt of waste was generated in Sweden. Of that total, 20.6 Mt of the waste was non-hazardous and 2.0 Mt was hazardous. This corresponds to 2.0 t of non-hazardous waste and 0.19 t of hazardous waste per capita.

In 2022, the main source of generated waste in Sweden was the construction industry, with 13.6 Mt, whereas the household sector generated 4.5 Mt.

The largest amounts of non-hazardous waste were soils, while among the hazardous wastes the largest quantities were chemical wastes (390 000 t). The trends suggest that these sectors will continue to be the dominant sources and waste generation levels are unlikely to decrease.