Extended producer responsibility for wet wipes
On this page you can find information about who is defined as a producer, how a producer is covered by the regulations and in what way and how a producer can fulfil their producer responsibilities.
If your business manufactures or sells wet wipes in Sweden, you are likely covered by producer responsibility and must register as a producer at the Swedish EPA and also report annually. The aim is to reduce the littering of wet wipes and the impact of single-use products on the environment.
Target group
Operators, such as manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and shops.
Good to know
The content at this site is updated continuously as new regulations come into force.
Legislation
Producer responsibility for wet wipes is governed by the EU's single-use plastics directive (EU) 2019/904, which has been implemented through regulations in Swedish legislation.
Ordinance (2021:999) on producer responsibility for wet wipes (pdf)
Ordinance (2021:1002) on littering fees (pdf)
Ordinance (2011:13) on environmental enforcement (riksdagen.se)
Ordinance (2012:259) on environmental sanction fees (riksdagen.se)
EU´s directive and guidance
Targets for reduced littering
Producers of wet wipes are obliged to effectively contribute to achieving the goal that outdoor littering should be negligible by 2030 at the latest. Information about how you as a producer contribute to achieving the goal must be made available on your or another suitable website.
The goal for reduced littering will be followed up through litter measurements carried out by the Swedish EPA from 2023 and every other year thereafter. If it appears from the litter measurements that there is a risk that the target will not be achieved in time, further measures may be necessary.
Representative
If you as a producer of wet wipes are established in Sweden and sell wet wipes to another country in the European Economic Area (EEA) where your company is not established, you must appoint a producer representative in that country. The representative shall be responsible for your obligations in that country.
If you are a producer and not established in Sweden, you may appoint a producer representative established in Sweden. If a representative is not appointed, you are responsible for your obligations in Sweden. If you choose to appoint a representative, this must be done through a written power of attorney. The representative will then be responsible for your obligations according to the Ordinance (2021:1000) on producer responsibility for wet wipes and the Ordinance (2021:1002) on littering fees.
The representative in Sweden must register with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. You who intend to register as a producer representative must then send an e-mail to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, kundtjanst@naturvardsverket.se, with the following information:
- Name of producer representative, contact details and personal or corporate identification number (if not available – tax identification number)
- A copy of the power of attorney
- Name of producer, contact details and tax identification number
- Information on which product you as a producer representative will be responsible for
Then you need to log in as a producer representative in the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's e-service and add yourself as a contact person for the producer you are a representative for.
Labeling
Wet wipes must be labelled with a clear and standardised label showing that the product contains plastic, how the product should be handled when it becomes waste and showing the product's negative environmental effects. The purpose of the labelling requirement is to inform consumers about proper handling to reduce littering and, in some cases, that the product must not be flushed down the toilet. In Sweden, labelling requirements applied 1 January 2022.
Products must be labelled when they are placed on the Swedish market and it is the producers of the products who are responsible for ensuring that they are labelled. The information message on the label shall be written in the official language or languages of the Member State(s) where the single-use plastic product is placed on the market. This means that products placed on markets in Sweden must be labelled in Swedish.
On 17 December 2020, the European Commission laid down in the EU Regulation on labelling (EU 2020/2151) how the label should look and be placed. You can find the information here:
EUR-Lex - 32020R2151 - EN - EUR-Lex (europa.eu)
Please note that there are mistranslations in the above regulation correction is available here:
Rättelse till förordningen (europa.eu)
Print original in vectorized form is available here:
Register
In order to know which producers provide wet wipes (containing plastic) on the Swedish market, all producers of these, as of January 1, 2023, must register with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
The register must be made before wet wipes are placed on the Swedish market via the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's e-service. The notification must contain the following information:
- Name of producer
- Contact details
- Personal or corporate identification number (if not available – tax identification number). If you are a producer and are not established in Sweden but sell directly to final users in Sweden, enter your VAT number instead.
Announce changes
It is the producer's responsibility that the submitted information is up to date and you are obliged to notify the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency as soon as possible of any changes in the information provided. You can make changes yourself in the Environmental Protection Agency's e-service.
Deregistration
If you consider that you are no longer a producer you need to deregister with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. You may have to report and pay a supervisory fee before a cancellation can be carried out, this depends on when your activity as a producer ended. Also remember to register as a producer again if you are subject to producer responsibility in the future.
Email information about deregistration to:
Businesses that were not active during the current year
- Report: If activities have been carried out during the current year, you need to report.
- if a collection system/your producer responsibility organisation handles your reporting, you report to them.
- if you handle the reporting yourself, you report via our e-service. - Submit the deregistration to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency with the following information:
- company’s name,
- organisation number,
- the reason you should be deregistered
- date on which activities as a producer ceased. - Terminate the agreement with your collection system/producer responsibility organisation. This is to avoid being registered with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency again.
Businesses that were active during the current year
- Report: If activities have been carried out during the current year, you need to report.
- if a collection system/your producer responsibility organisation handles your reporting, you report to them.
- if you handle the reporting yourself, you report via our e-service. - Pay supervisory fee: If activities have been carried out during the current year, a supervisory fee needs to be paid. These are automatically scheduled and sent out continuously throughout the year by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
- After the reporting has been done and the supervision fee has been paid, submit the deregistration to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency with the following information:
- company’s name,
- organisation number,
- the reason you should be deregistered
- date on which activities as a producer ceased.
- date on which you submitted your report for the current year, and documentation proving you reported. - Terminate the agreement with your collection system/producer responsibility organisation. This is to avoid being registered with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency again.
E-service producer responsibility
Companies and organisations affected by producer responsibility can submit (or update) their information to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency via the e-service for producer responsibility.
Reporting
From the year 2024, producers of wet wipes must report to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency every year by March 31 at the latest. The reporting must be done in the Environmental Protection Agency's e-service. The reporting must contain information on how many products a producer has released on the Swedish market during the immediately preceding calendar year. To ensure the quality of this data, producers must create routines for internal checks.
The reason why producers must report to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is so that Sweden can live up to the requirements found in the EU's single-use plastics directive, Article 8 on extended producer responsibility and Article 13 on information systems and reporting. The information to be submitted when reporting is used to determine the right product fee to the right producer.
Fees
Littering fees
The littering fees consist of a fixed annual fee and a variable product fee. The fees will be paid from 2025. The fees apply to wet wipes that contain plastic.
Annual fee
The annual fee is SEK 500.
Product fee
The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency determines the size of the product fee per product category, but the final size of the product fee for each producer depends on how many products the producer released on the Swedish market during the previous calendar year. Once the size of the product fee is decided, the amount will be updated.
Fee noticed by e-mail
The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency sends out the enforcement fee by e-mail as a fee notice.
Purpose of littering fees
Littering fees are introduced in Sweden according to the polluter pays principle. Anyone who puts certain single-use plastic products on the market must be involved in paying the municipality's cleaning costs.
Enforcement fee
The enforcement fee is SEK 500 per producer and calendar year. The fee must be paid from the year 2023.
Fee notice by e-mail
The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency sends out the enforcement fee by e-mail as a fee notice.
The enforcement fee is used to keep a digital register of all producers and to ensure compliance with the rules.
The provisions on the enforcement fee are set out in Chapter 7. Section 8 m § of the Ordinance (1998:940) on fees for testing and enforcement under the Environmental Code.
Sanctions
If an operator has not complied with the legislation, it may have to pay an environmental sanction fee. An environmental sanction fee is an administrative fee that is charged by a supervisory authority when an operator has infringed a fee-based provision under the Environmental Code, or the regulations that have been decided on the basis of the Environmental Code.
In the event of an infringement of some of the regulations regarding single-use products, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, as a supervisory authority, will charge environmental sanction fees. The infringements that shall result in an environmental sanction fee based on the regulation on wet wipes are set out in Chapter 11. Sections 29-30 of the Ordinance (2012:259) on environmental sanction fees.
In some cases, an operator may have to sell out the stock of unmarked products that are subject to labeling requirements. Whether the products are allowed to be sold depends on whether they are considered to have been placed on the market before 1 January 2022 or not.
Sanctions regarding labeling requirements
An operator may be required to pay an environmental sanction fee of SEK 10,000 if wet wipes have been placed on the Swedish market without having provided the product with the required label. This applies from July 4, 2022.
Sanctions regarding register and reporting requirement
If an operator has submitted information when register late to the Swedish EPA it may be required to pay an environmental sanction fee of SEK 10,000. This applies from 1 January 2023. As of January 1, 2024, an operator may be required to pay an environmental sanction fee of SEK 10,000 if a report has been submitted late to the Swedish EPA.
About infringement – how does the process work?
If an operation has not complied with the legislation above, the operator may have to pay an environmental sanction fee. In that case you will receive a letter from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency with a proposal for a decision on an environmental sanction fee. We send this letter as a notification to you that we are considering imposing an environmental sanction fee on the company.
You will then have the opportunity to comment on the draft decision within the time specified in the letter. This means that you can provide information about why you believe that the company should not be charged an environmental sanction fee. Your comment can be sent by letter or e-mail. Valid reasons for not charging an environmental sanction fee are described in Chapter 30, Section 2 of the Environmental Code: 2 § An environmental penalty fee shall be charged even if the infringement has not been committed intentionally or negligently.
However, the fee need not be charged if it would be unreasonable to do so with regard to:
- illness as a result of which the fee debtor is unable to do the duties incumbent on the person liable to pay the fee on his own or by entrusting the fee debtor;
- that the infringement was due to a circumstance which could not or should not have been foreseen or beyond the control of the fee debtor;
- what the fee debtor has done to avoid an infringement occurring, or
- that the infringement has given rise to punishment in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 29.
The environmental penalty fee shall accrue to the State. Law (2006:1014).
If you choose not to comment, or if the information you provided cannot form the basis for not charging an environmental sanction fee, you will receive a decision on an environmental sanction fee.
The decision contains information on when and how you should pay the environmental sanction fee. You pay the environmental sanction fee to Kammarkollegiet (Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency) and it goes to the state. You will receive the decision together with a service receipt that the authorized person must date, sign and send back to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
You can appeal against the decision within three weeks of the date you received the decision.
Definitions
Producer
A producer of wet wipes is defined as one who professionally:
- brings in wet wipes to Sweden,
- manufactures wet wipes in Sweden, or
- from a country other than Sweden sells wet wipes to an end user in Sweden.
Wet wipes
Wet wipes refer to wipes consisting of a pre-moistened material that contains plastic and that have been designed, constructed and placed on the Swedish market as a disposable product and intended for personal care e.g. personal hygiene or domestic use e.g. household cleaning purposes.
Wet wipes, which are made using non-natural polymers or natural polymers that have been chemically modified, like polyester and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), fall within the scope of the Directive. Wet wipes, which are entirely made of natural polymers that have not been chemically modified, like viscose and lyocell, fall outside the scope of the Directive.
For clarifying examples, see Table 4.20 (pages 39-40) and Table 4.21 (page 41) of the Commission guidance on single-use plastic products:
Wet wipes intended for personal care
A personal care wet wipe is intended to be used for hygiene purposes. These include cleansing and caring of skin of both human adults and babies e.g. baby wipes, cosmetic/make- up removal wipes, intimate care wipes, etc.
Wet wipes intended for domestic use
A domestic use wet wipe is intended to be used in domestic premises. These include wet wipes used for household cleaning purposes e.g. wipes used to clean kitchen and bathroom surfaces, wet wipes used to clean personal vehicles, spectacle cleaning wipes, etc.
Wet wipes intended for professional use
While not explicitly mentioned in the Directive, wet wipes, which are conceived, designed and placed on the market for professional use, such as medical or healthcare wipes would not meet the criterion for personal care or domestic use. These products are therefore not considered to fall within the scope of the Directive.
The point of purchase, distribution channel and type of end user are important elements that should be considered in order to determine whether certain wet wipes are intended for domestic or professional use. For instance, wet wipes sold through professional distribution channels e.g. business-to-business channels, and which are used by healthcare professionals are considered to be intended for professional use and would not be included in the scope of the Directive. However, wet wipes which are sold in business-to-consumer channels and distributed to non-professional consumers, e.g. wet wipes, which can be purchased by individual consumers at a pharmacy and used at home, are not considered as professional use. These products are therefore included in the scope of the Directive.
Also wet wipes for which, at the time they are placed on the market, it is unclear if the intended use is industrial or domestic should be included in the scope of the Directive to avoid circumvention of the Directive.
Single-use plastic product
A single-use product is usually intended to be used only once, or for a short time, before it becomes waste. According to the Single-Use Products Regulation, a single-use plastic product is a product that consists completely or partly of plastic and that has not been designed, constructed or placed on the Swedish market to be reused several times during its life cycle by being refilled or reused for the same purpose for which it was designed.
For more information about the definition of single-use plastic product, see:
Plastic
A plastic is defined under the Single Use Plastics Directive as a material consisting of a polymer according to the REACH Regulation, to which additives or other substances may have been added. It can be used as the main structural component of final products. Natural polymers that have not been chemically modified are excluded.
Plastics made from modified natural polymers are covered by the Directive. The same applies to plastics made from bio-based, fossil or synthetic raw materials. Biodegradable plastics and polymer-based rubber articles are also covered by the Directive.
In general, a polymer obtained from an industrial process is defined as a modified polymer even if it occurs naturally in nature. This means that a polymer produced by biosynthesis in synthetic culture and fermentation processes, such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), is counted as a modified natural polymer.
A polymer that, on the other hand, is produced in nature and then extracted from nature for further processing is counted as a natural polymer. One example is the extraction of cellulose, which is then regenerated into viscose. Viscose and lyocell are therefore excluded from the scope of the Directive. Clarifications to the definition of plastic in the Directive can be found in the Commission's guidance on single-use plastic products.
Placing on the market
Placing a product on the market means making a product available on the market in a Member State for the first time. Making a product available means making a product available for distribution, consumption or use on the market of a Member State in the course of a commercial activity. It does not matter if the product is in return for payment, or free of charge.
An offer or contract is required, but the product does not need to have been handed over
The placing on the market of a product requires the existence of an offer or an agreement (written or oral) between two or more legal or natural persons for a transfer of ownership, possession or any other right in respect of the product in question.
An offer means, for example, online offer, advertising campaigns, emails inviting you to buy, delivery of quotes, informing buyers and distributors about available products and their price, or any other proposal to sell a specific product (which is already manufactured).
In order for the product to be considered to have been placed on the market, it must have been manufactured, but a physical handover of the product does not need to have taken place.
A product is considered not to have been placed on the market as long as it is in the stock of the manufacturer or importer and has not been made available for distribution, consumption or use.
Products from the EU are re-placed on the market in Sweden
In accordance with the Single Use Plastics Directive, placing on the market in Sweden means that a single-use plastic product is made available on the market in Sweden for the first time. This is in contrast to the definition in the Blue Guide (Commission guidance to EU product regulations 2016/C 272/01) where placing on the market is defined as taking place when the product is made available on the Union market for the first time, which means that it is sufficient that the product has been made available for the first time in one of the EU Member States to be considered to have been placed on the market in Sweden as well.
EU Commissions FAQ
The Commission has compiled questions and answers on the concept of placing on the market in the Single Use Plastics Directive. The document has not been adopted or approved by the European Commission and is therefore not an official position. However, it can be used as an aid in assessing whether a product has been placed on the market or not. The document can be found here: