Notification must be submitted to the Swedish EPA before the shipment is initiated and the shipment must be approved by the Agency as well as authorities in transit countries and the final recipient country where the waste will be received and treated. If you want to import waste to Sweden, you need to contact the country from which it will be dispatched and notify the authorities there.
Special rules apply to certain waste shipments between Sweden and Finland.
Step-by-step notification guide
1. Check if notification is required
Under the Swedish Environmental Code, operators are responsible for knowing whether or not they need to notify the authorities of a waste shipment. The rules are set out in Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 on shipments of waste.
2. Send an email to the Swedish EPA with details on your waste
A special notification document is to be used, but before you fill it out, send an email to the Swedish EPA providing details on your waste. This is necessary in order to receive a notification number (also called an SE-number) which you will include on your notification document.
We will also verify that you and your company are the rightful “notifiers”, as only certain parties are entitled to be notifiers. The Swedish EPA determines this based on Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006, Article 2.15.
- You must provide the following information in your email:
- A brief description of the waste: EWC (European Waste Catalogue) code (see Annex V, Part 2 of Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006, how it originated and which hazardous components it contains, and preferably also the Basel Convention or OECD code.
- A brief description of what will happen to the waste at the recipient facility (e.g. disposal or recovery, and how this will be carried out).
- Who produced the waste and who is the rightful notifier
- Information on where in Sweden the waste will be dispatched from and at which port/bridge/road/border locality the waste will exit the country.
- Information on the country and the company the waste will be dispatched to
- Contact person, contact details and invoice address
- Submit the information to
- inutavfall@naturvardsverket.se
3. You will receive additional information from the Swedish EPA
Once we have received your email containing the requested details, we will send the information you need to proceed with the notification process.
You will receive instructions on how to fill out Notification Document Annex IA and the Movement Document Annex IB according to the instructions set out in Annex IC in the EC regulation.
You will also receive a 6-digit notification number (SE number), for example SE 150001. This is the number you will include in the Notification Document and Movement Document and in all correspondence with the Swedish EPA and other authorities regarding the shipment notification.
You may fill out and submit the documents via the Nordic TFS e-service. At this time the service is primarily for Swedish exporter notifications but it will be developed for use outside Sweden as well.
4. Fill out the documents and assemble your contracts, financial security document, descriptions and verification documents
When you fill out the Notification Document and the Movement Document you must include various waste codes in boxes 11, 12, 13 and 14. You can find information on these codes in Annex IA in Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006.
Fill out the entire document and sign it (Annex IA). Submit all documents in hard copies to the Swedish EPA. We need originals of Annex IA and the bank guarantee. If you submit your notification via Nordic TFS you only need to sign Annex IA and the bank guarantee in the originals and then send them to us by normal mail. You can submit the rest digitally via Nordic TFS.
Please note that Movement Document Annex IB should not be signed when you submit it.
The following documents should be included and submitted along with the notification/movement documents:
- A separate waste contract.
- Original of a financial guarantee document.
- General description of how the waste will be treated/processed in the recipient country, unless you have provided this information in a previous notification.
- A description of the transport routes (customs offices for export and import and routes between the export and import points).
- Proof that the carriers you are using have permits or are registered for waste transportation with the county administrative board.You are responsible for ensuring the above, regardless of whether the carrier already has a permit or is registered in another EU country.
You also need to be prepared to provide information that may be required by authorities according to Annex II to the waste shipments regulation. It may, for example, be the case that a treatment/processing facility has a permit for its operations or a certificate confirming that the carriers have permits to transport the waste.
The Swedish EPA has produced a contract template to facilitate the waste shipment process for operators. The required contents of the contract are described in Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006.
The contract is to be submitted along with the shipment notification. It must be signed by the notifier and recipient, as well as by the disposal or recovery facility to which the waste will be shipped. The contract must already be signed and in effect when notification is submitted and be valid until confirmation of completion of the waste disposal or recovery is sent to the Swedish EPA.
It is important to know if the waste will be processed in any way before it is recovered or disposed of (at a so-called interim facility). If this is the case, the interim facility must also sign the contract. If the waste is to be shipped to a third country, i.e. a country outside the EU, the contract must contain additional information.
5. Pay the necessary fees for the agencies to review your notification
The Swedish EPA charges a fee of SEK 10,700 to review your notification submission. We will send you an invoice once the notification documents have been received.
Agencies in the other countries indicated in your notification will also charge a reviewing fee. Invoices must be paid as soon as possible. The Swedish EPA applies the 30-day payment rule.
6. Be precise and give yourself plenty of time
Start working on your notification well in advance of the date you intend to initiate the waste shipment. It may, for example, take a while to obtain a financial guarantee. The Swedish EPA and other agencies also need time to process notification submissions.
The Swedish EPA and the other agencies relevant to your waste notification process have the right to deny your request to export of waste from Sweden if you:
- do not meet the regulatory requirements;
- do not provide your information in a timely manner; or
- do not provide accurate information.
7. Submit all of your notification documents to the Swedish EPA in Östersund
We request that you submit your notification and all accompanying documents together. It saves time for you as the notifier and us as the reviewing agency if all the documents are submitted at one time.
If you submit your notification via Nordic TFS you only need to send the signed Annex IA form and the bank guarantee in the originals by normal post.
Send your notification and relevant documents to:
Naturvårdsverket
Import/export av avfall
Återvinningsenheten BOX
690831 27 Östersund
Sweden
8. General principles for reviewing your notification
The Swedish EPA processes notification submissions in the order in which they are received. We cannot prioritise among notifications.
The Swedish EPA’s processing time for waste shipments within the EU or OECD is no more than 30 days from the date the authority in the recipient country has confirmed that the notification process has been completed.
The less supplemental information we need to request, the faster we can give you a decision on your waste shipment.
You will either receive approval for your shipment or an objection to it. The Swedish EPA’s decision in Sweden can be appealed with the Land and Environmental Court within Nacka District Court. Information on where you can appeal a decision in another country will be provided with that country’s decision.
