--- title: Sweden is Turning Food Waste Into Fuel and Fertilizer description: A new law in Sweden requires people to recycle their food waste. canonical: https://time.com/7013480/food-waste-recycle-sweden/ author: Andrew Johnson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-08-27T16:30:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T18:11:02.364Z article:section: Climate og:title: Watch: Sweden is Turning Food Waste Into Fuel and Fertilizer og:description: A new law in Sweden requires people to recycle their food waste. og:url: https://time.com/7013480/food-waste-recycle-sweden/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe1f6e2e8b37892a/698a5a189d83e88f24b9a6d8/GettyImages-1279138460.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Cropped hand of senior man throwing garbage in dustbin at home og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch: Sweden is Turning Food Waste Into Fuel and Fertilizer twitter:description: A new law in Sweden requires people to recycle their food waste. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe1f6e2e8b37892a/698a5a189d83e88f24b9a6d8/GettyImages-1279138460.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- # Watch: Sweden is Turning Food Waste Into Fuel and Fertilizer ## Video: A New Swedish Law is Helping to Turn Food Waste Into Fuel [Watch (HLS stream): A New Swedish Law is Helping to Turn Food Waste Into Fuel](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xgpGFyxM.m3u8) (1:50)  _Published 2024-08-21. For decades, in some areas of Sweden, it has been mandatory for residents to recycle their food waste. A new law makes the practice compulsory country-wide to lower the country’s per capita food waste by 20 percent by 2025._ Aug 27, 2024 4:30 PM CUT  by [Andrew Johnson](/author/andrew-johnson/)  ## Andrew Johnson Aug 27, 2024 4:30 PM CUT For decades, in some areas of Sweden, it has been mandatory for residents to recycle their food waste. A new law makes the practice compulsory across the entire country, as part of an effort to lower Sweden's per capita food waste by 20% by 2025. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7013480/food-waste-recycle-sweden/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7013480/food-waste-recycle-sweden/"},"headline":"Watch: Sweden is Turning Food Waste Into Fuel and Fertilizer","datePublished":"2024-08-27T16:30:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T18:11:02.364Z","description":"A new law in Sweden requires people to recycle their food waste.","url":"https://time.com/7013480/food-waste-recycle-sweden/","keywords":["climate","sponsorshipblock","AmazonFutures24","Futures Innovative"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Andrew Johnson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/andrew-johnson/"}],"articleSection":"Climate","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/climate/","name":"Climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/climate/","name":"climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7013480/food-waste-recycle-sweden/","name":"Watch: Sweden is Turning Food Waste Into Fuel and Fertilizer"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A New Swedish Law is Helping to Turn Food Waste Into Fuel","description":"For decades, in some areas of Sweden, it has been mandatory for residents to recycle their food waste. A new law makes the practice compulsory country-wide to lower the country’s per capita food waste by 20 percent by 2025.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xgpGFyxM/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-08-21T15:31:31.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xgpGFyxM.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/7013480/food-waste-recycle-sweden/","duration":"PT1M50S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/7013480/food-waste-recycle-sweden/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```