Swedish Frontrunners to Circularity
Is there a unique Swedish approach to circularity and who are the frontrunners paving the way? Last year’s Nordic Circular Summit in Stockholm gave us a great chance to become more familiar with Swedish frontrunners in the circular economy. In this article, we introduce you to companies and organisations to keep an eye on on the circularity front!
Swedish approach and solutions to circularity
Sweden is active in the sustainable and circular transition with governments setting ambitious strategies and action plans and many Swedish companies working with innovative circular solutions. In 2018, the Swedish government appointed a delegation for the circular economy to ensure central coordination, holistic direction, and approach to working with the circular economy in Sweden. The government also initiated a strategy for circular economy in July 2020, leading to an action plan that was presented in January 2021 in which plastics, textiles, construction, and food, to name a few, were highlighted as priorities.
Despite these efforts, Sweden has a long way to go. RISE Research Institute of Sweden recently published a gap report which showed that Sweden is only 3,4% circular — and other statistics show that the amount of waste is, in fact, increasing while the share of what is being recycled is decreasing. In addition, Sweden is a wealthy country with consumption that poses a big problem. In 2022, Sweden’s overshoot day took place in April.
Today, Sweden has many companies and projects that develop innovations and methods for circular economy to combat this gap. Sara Anderson, a Group Manager at IVL, identified four different areas of how Sweden, and Swedish companies, are working towards the circular economy transition and identified several Swedish frontrunners within those areas. These areas are:
innovation technologies,
closed loops,
business models,
and platforms and networks.
In this article, we will explore several examples of Swedish frontrunners working within these areas and towards a circular transition.
Innovation technologies
Innovative technologies as a solution for the circular economy in Sweden focus on material sorting and recycling. According to Anderson, these companies are frontrunners worth keeping an eye out for:
SIPTex — an industrial-scale automatic sorting plant for textile waste
Stockholm Exergi — a sorting plant that sorts household waste. It separates plastic from the waste before it goes into incineration
Stena Recycling — investing in a new factory for recycling batteries for vehicles, in cooperation with Northvolt
Closed loops
The concept of closed loops focuses on recycling material back into the same product after the use phase. This enables the material to retain high value and circulate several times. Anderson identified the following companies to be frontrunners working within this area:
Svepretur — voluntarily extended producer responsibility (ERP) for plastic in the agricultural sector
Accon Greentech — recycles big plastic bacs into other plastic bags
Tarkett — takes residue and waste that accumulates when installing new floors back into the production of new plastic flooring
TrioWorld — takes back plastic aprons from the healthcare sector and recycles them into new aprons
Business models
Business models refer to the section of circular economy which focuses on the process of companies transitioning from conventional business models to more circular and sustainable business models. Anderson identified the following companies to be frontrunners working within this area:
IKEA — has a strategy to become more circular and climate positive before 2030. The focus is on design for circularity and using only recyclable or renewable materials in the production
H&M — includes repair, resale, remake, and recycling in their business model. Has a big focus is on design for recycling
Hygglo — instead of buying products for e.g. mowing the lawn, you rent it from someone. Someone in your neighbourhood might have listed a lawnmower up for rent on Hygglo.
Inrego — sells refurbished laptops, computers and phones, and gives them a second life
Platforms and networks
Platforms and networks focus on setting up networks or platforms for actors to come together to share and build knowledge on the topic of circular economy. Anderson identified the following organisations to be frontrunners working within this area:
Centre for Circular Building — a platform for construction and real estate companies, which offers knowledge sharing and a digital marketplace for construction materials
Circular Sweden — a forum for large Swedish companies with a common goal to create a more circular material flow and have the vision to become a 100% circular
Cradlenet — platform open for all types of actors. Cradlenet offers advice, seminars, education, summits, and more.
More Swedish frontrunners
The City of Gothenburg
The City of Gothenburg started the initiative Circular Gothenburg in 2016, and from 2021 onwards they have set very ambitious environmental goals and decided on a circular strategy. They are aiming for a 90% reduction of climate impact from their purchases between 2020-2030 — and to reach that goal, they need to be resource efficient. The prioritised actions for 2022-2024 are:
to stimulate a circular market transition by activating their own demand,
focus on reuse, repair and sharing in the City’s own departments,
have an open and inclusive process with different stakeholders,
initiate a systemised collaboration for a circular Gothenburg, and
do circular profiling and collaboration nationally and internationally.
Accus
Accus is a company that produces circular signs. A decision was made by Accus’ CEO that they would become 100% circular and they have been on a journey ever since. Accus returned to the design table and managed to switch the materials used in their production to either recyclable or used. Their biggest challenge has been to find recyclable aluminium but with creative methods and mindset, they have been successful. Examples of materials they use now are MDFs or recyclable acrylics instead of virgin acrylics, and aluminium from old signs or panels from buildings that are to be demolished.
Foxway
Foxway offers recovery services of IT products for its partners where products are assessed and repaired and recovered for reselling. Foxway also works with repackaging and relabeling products to ensure a positive customer experience of buying a refurbished product. Lastly, Foxway offers complete workspace solutions for large organisations, called Device-as-a-Service. Included in the service is the process of getting the product into Foxway’s facilities, refurbishment of the product and then getting the product back into business.
Eco3
Eco3 is a refurbishing centre for coffee machines where sustainable coffee solutions are created, primarily for offices, the public sector, restaurants and coffee shops. Eco3 wants to make the process of buying a recycled coffee machine as attractive and affordable as buying a new machine, so a lot of focus is put on hygiene factors and the total cost of ownership. They want their customers to be proud of their choice of having a refurbished machine, and more often than not, a machine can be fixed and cleaned — and used for many more years to come.
Embracing circularity
How will we reach a more circular Sweden, and world? It is apparent we have challenges ahead but according to Sara Anderson from IVL, we need to think of the whole system: the systems approach and system innovation. Here a few key things that you can keep in mind when transitioning to the circular economy:
Starting from the top. We need to start from the beginning which is during the design phase of a product/process. The European Union is launching a framework for designing for circularity, called “Safe and Sustainable by Design”. Are you a designer? If so, look out for that.
Standardisation. There are more and more standards being developed and soon to be released for circular materials.
Cooperation along the value chain. Do not only look at your part of the value chain, try to include all actors you have in the value chain.
New and improved technologies. Take on a role to help support a transition of new and improved technologies into the market. There is a lot of work ahead to implement them all, so encourage people to engage with it.
Circular business models. Rethink business and develop goals and strategies to be more circular, starting with the business model!
The behaviour. We need to move towards more sustainable consumption and have a circular mindset.
Written by Jóhanna Wium Pálmarsdóttir (Afry)
