The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide - Democrats Against UN ...

The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide
environmentally safe products.
In the autumn of 1989, SKAFAB, the city’s waste disposal company, opened environmental stations or collection points where
households may dispose of hazardous wastes that should not be released to the sewer system. Vatten also launched an extensive
public information campaign in May 1990, aimed at influencing the behavior of the public towards purchases of household products
that have adverse environmental impacts. An information campaign called “Wash Wisely” discouraged the use of unsuitable laundry
and cleaning detergents. Primarily directed at large consumers, the campaign covered all municipal administrations in the city,
including city-run schools, day care centers, hospitals, and neighboring communities. The campaign also provided every household
in the city with an information folder on environmentally safe cleaning methods and products. This was followed by advertisements
in daily newspapers, and poster displays in public places. Four months later, another folder containing information on
environmentally hazardous household waste was distributed. This contained information on how to deal with hazardous household
waste such as mercury from a broken thermometer.
Stockholm Water has initiated cooperation between municipalities in the region through the organization of a number of working
groups. One of the working groups organized concentrates on the promotion of environmentally friendly construction materials
during the permitting and financing processes for building renovations and new construction.
Ongoing cooperation has been fostered with other municipalities with regard to the purchase of suitable detergent brands, not only to
realize economies but also to exercise their market influence over product designs. Vatten supports the effort through the continual
grading of the detergents from an environmental viewpoint. As a result of the higher environmental consciousness among
consumers, products that are excluded from the list of suitable products have lost market share, forcing the manufacturers to make
their products more environmentally suitable.
Another component of Vatten’s efforts was to reduce pollution from storm water drains. This involved a year-long study, started in
autumn of 1991, to measure emission levels of dioxides, PAH pollutants, PCB pollutants, and metals from automobile traffic.
Findings from this study will provide the basis for anti-pollution measures, such as imposing a ban on the use of cleated tires in the
inner city area, reductions in the use of leaded gasoline, and the construction of separate storm water lines for high traffic streets.
This program has achieved substantial reductions of various metal contents in sewerage sludge—from 50 percent to 84 percent—
over an 18-month period in 1990-91. This was achieved in spite of the city’s lack of regulatory powers to impose penalties or to
close down polluting industries. Vatten has skillfully leveraged the city’s legal position to disconnect polluting industries from
sewage treatment facilities in order to achieve the compliance of businesses and small industries to the imposed limits. Vatten also
collaborated with industries in the development of technologies that would render pollution limits more achievable, conducted
awareness campaigns to harness consumer sovereignty to steer the market away from inferior products, and used the city’s own
purchasing power to encourage the introduction of environmentally superior products.
Solutions and technologies continue to be explored. Purification technology for car wash wastewater is being developed, and, when
completed, will be required in all car washes. A year-long study is in progress to analyze the pollutants in storm water runoff and to
provide the basis for measures to be taken. In cooperation with crematoria owners, purification of smoke fumes (primarily from
mercury) is being conducted on a trial basis with plans to install effective facilities in the near future.
Contact
Sven-Erik Skogsfors
Box 6407
113 82 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel.: +46-8/728-0130
Fax: +46-8/728-8701
References
Brattberg, Gunilla and Sven-Erik Skogsfors.
“Measures at the Source—A Presentation of
Stockholm Water Ltd.’s Efforts to Reduce the
Discharge of Environmentally Hazardous Pollutants
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