Mattias Bäckström, associate professor of chemistry at Örebro University, has followed SVT to the site in Kumla where hundreds of tons of battery waste have been dumped. He thinks the event is surprising.

In the field, hundreds of tons of black pulp, which comes from battery waste, have been excavated. Kumla Municipality has taken samples on the ground and they show exceptionally high levels of metals.

- High levels of cadmium and mercury can be a problem for humans. For the environment, zinc and copper can be a problem, says associate professor Mattias Bäckström about the black mass that was excavated in the field.

Long-term responsibility

The battery waste is taken care of by the company Urecycle, which recycles 70 percent of the country's batteries. In the present case, Urecycle has hired a subcontractor to handle the battery waste, but this has been dumped in Kumla.

Associate Professor Mattias Bäckström says he is surprised at how this could happen because companies like Urecycle have far-reaching responsibility for controlling their subcontractors.

- You have to make sure that the subcontractors you use have permits and expertise to handle that type of material. So it's strange.

"The subcontractor was not anchored"

Urecycle is clear that they had no knowledge of the subcontractor's actions.

- They did not anchor this with us, where the first mistake was committed. The material has been moved to a place you are not allowed to move it to, says Pekka Väänänen, Operational Manager at Urecycle and continues:

- It was very clear in the agreement that the subcontractor should notify us if you are unable to handle a material.

How are you moving on now?

- The only thing we can do is help to ensure that battery waste comes back to recycling or to destruction. Henceforth, we will be less likely to make decisions about new subcontractors.

"It may never happen again"

Following the information about the dumping, the industry organization El-circuit has stopped supplying batteries to Urecycle. But Peter Väänänen and Urecycle haven't been thinking about that yet.

- The only thing that can be done now is to investigate what happened and secure it so it never happens again. Because it must never happen again, ”points out Peter Väänänen.