Building plants that purify the wastewater from medicines more cost effectively. The technology is expensive and draws between two to three times as much energy. According to the Swedish Water Organization, which represents the drinking water and wastewater treatment plants in Sweden, the fee that households pay for water and wastewater would increase by between 10 and 30 percent.

Therefore, they want the pharmaceutical companies to participate and pay.

- If they participate and pay, it will also be an incentive for them to develop medicines that can be broken down better in the treatment plants, says Anders Finnson, environmental expert at Swedish Water.

There are difficulties

Bengt Mattsson is an expert on the Swedish Pharmaceutical Industry Association and tells SVT News that in this case it is difficult to determine who is the producer and who would pay in that case.

- Is it the one who made the substance, the one who put together the tablet itself, or is it perhaps the medical service that prints it?

He draws a parallel to whether in his manufacture they would cause a large oil spill.

- Then of course it is obvious that we would be responsible for the emissions and not the oil company.

Another objection to paying for increased costs for purification in Sweden is, according to Bengt Mattsson, that the purification would also capture other harmful substances, such as microplastics and household chemicals.

"What is the part of the drugs in the whole?" He asks rhetorically.