Vessels discharge paraffin into the sea - perfectly legal

- We have collected samples and analyzed and concluded that it is pure paraffin. We are not actively doing anything about this, but what is on the beaches is municipal responsibility, ”says Christian Carlsson, watchdog officer at the Coast Guard.

Over the past ten years, "relatively large quantities" of paraffin and similar products from vessels have been washed ashore on the shores of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, according to a report from the intergovernmental organization Helcom that monitors the environment in the Baltic Sea.

- You hear a few times a year that it floats on beaches, says Fredrik Lindgren, investigator at the Marine and Water Authority.

According to international rules, it is permissible to wash tanks containing paraffin and similar substances twelve nautical miles from the coast. Paraffin is not considered to be directly hazardous to the environment, but it does not dissolve in water, but the lumps are gradually washed up ashore.

In addition to inconvenience for municipalities and private individuals who are allowed to clean up on the beaches, seabirds and other marine animals can lose paraffin for food.

But new rules for the Baltic Sea and the North Sea are under way within the UN's international maritime organization, IMO. From January 2021, the vessels must filter out the lumps before they are washed out into the seas, says Fredrik Lindgren.

- From 2021, hopefully, we will not have these problems on Swedish beaches anymore.