It is the country that gave the world Greta Thunberg, crows trained to collect cigarette butts and a wonderful word, ploggers, for folk who stop to pick up litter on their daily runs. Sweden, for many Scots, has an image of pristine nature, environmentally conscious citizens and responsible social-democratic government. The cliche - as cliches often do - has some truth to it.
Thunberg, still only 21, has influence well beyond her years and her nation’s borders as she fights against in-action on the climate emergency. A town council really did teach birds to hunt down cigarette waste. And some joggers in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo actually do stoop to scoop up street trash.
But Sweden’s left is out of office, replaced, in 2022, by a centre-right alliance with an uncomfortable and controversial supply and confidence agreement with hard-right populists who have only just u-turned to support net zero efforts. And the country still has its litter, not least plastic packaging and bottles in its rivers, harbours and canals. “We did national monitoring - two years ago now - and in that one week, we found 35 million pieces of litter,” Johanna Ragnartz, chief executive of Håll Sverige Rent, or Keep Sweden Tidy, told The Herald on Sunday.
“So I guess we are as dirty as any West European country that has a decent system. We are no better, no worse. I think we have a pretty good system to take care of rubbish.
But I don't think our behaviour is better than anyone else’s.