‘Largest Environmental Crime in Sweden’: 11 on Trial for Illegal Dumping of Toxic Waste

In what prosecutor Anders Gustafsson called “the largest environmental crime in Sweden,” 11 people and the Think Pink recycling company are being accused of the illegal disposal of toxic waste.

Defendants include former Think Pink chief executive Bella Nilsson — who has since changed her name to Fariba Vancor and once referred to herself as the “queen of trash” — and Thomas Nilsson, her ex-husband.

The charges levied against the Nilssons and Think Pink are serious environmental crime, as well as serious economic crime, reported The Guardian. The other defendants have been charged with aiding and abetting, in addition to the same crimes as the Nilssons.

At its peak — from 2018 to 2020 — Think Pink’s construction bags were often seen in Stockholm, the country’s capital city. The company offered inexpensive waste disposal and recycling, and Bella Nilsson was given awards for her work.

In Sollentuna’s Attunda district court, the now-defunct company was accused of waste dumping in a manner that could harm the environment and human health in 21 locations across the country. All defendants have denied any wrongdoing.

“There are claims for damages of 260m SEK [£19m], mainly from municipalities, when they were forced to clear away the large mountains of rubbish,” Anders Gustafsson, one of three prosecutors in the case, told broadcaster SVT, as The Guardian reported. “It is exceptional that it is on a large scale and that it has been going on for such a long time in several places in the country.”

Gustafsson said the company had used falsified documents and dumped the trash to make large profits while deceiving authorities, calling it “the largest environmental crime in Sweden in terms of scope and organisation.”

Think Pink is being accused of illegally dumping a minimum of 220,462 tons of waste. Investigators found harmful levels of lead, copper, arsenic, zinc, dioxins and petroleum products at the dump sites.

Prosecutors said the company, which went bankrupt after Bella Nisson was arrested in 2020, had “no intention or ability to handle [the waste] in line with environmental legislation,” reported BBC News. They added that the way in which it disposed of the trash endangered the “health of humans, animals and plant life.”

Municipalities, builders and individuals hired Think Pink to dispose of their building materials, metals, plastics, tires, wood, electronics and toys. But prosecutors said the company left piles of rubbish abandoned and “unsorted.”

“Don’t you think about that when you pay so little for the service? Can what you put in the construction bag even be recycled for that cost?” senior prosecutor Linda Schön told Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter, as The Guardian reported.

The indictment covered sites in 15 municipalities and said the primary suspects had hauled thousands of tons of demolition and construction waste that had not been sorted, buried it, wrapped it in plastic and bales and used it as filling material.

In an earlier statement, Bella Nilsson told Swedish media that Think Pink had acted in accordance with the law, saying she had been plotted against by rival businesses, reported Euronews Green.

“She has an explanation for all of this,” Jan Tibbling, Nilsson’s lawyer, told Dagens Nyheter on Monday.