“Queen of Garbage” in the dock in Sweden’s biggest toxic waste scandal

On Tuesday, eleven people accused of illegally dumping toxic waste will go on trial in Sweden. It is the largest environmental criminal trial in the country's history.

A once-prominent waste management company is accused of dumping or burying around 200,000 tonnes of waste from the Stockholm area at 21 locations without any intention of disposing of it properly.

Among those accused of “serious environmental crime” is former managing director Bella Nilsson, an ex-stripper who once called herself the “Queen of Trash.”

Prosecutors said large amounts of PCBs, lead, mercury, arsenic and other chemicals were released into the air, soil and water, posing a “risk to the health of humans, animals and plants”.

They claim that the now bankrupt NMT Think Pink “collected waste without the intention or ability to dispose of it in accordance with environmental protection laws.”

The waste consisted of everything from building materials to electronics, metals, plastics, wood, tires and toys.

According to the indictment, Think Pink left the stacks “unsorted” and abandoned.

Also among the defendants are Nilsson's ex-husband Thomas, the founder of the company, and Leif Ivan Karlsson, an eccentric entrepreneur who appeared in a reality show about his excessive lifestyle, as well as “garbage broker” Robert Silversten.

Magnus Karlsson, an environmental consultant who helped the company handle the inspections, was charged with aiding and abetting.

All eleven defendants denied having committed a crime.

During its heyday from 2018 to 2020, the company's pink rubble bags could be seen on many of Stockholm's sidewalks and the company won a prestigious Swedish business award twice.

Burning garbage dumps

Think Pink has been commissioned by municipalities, construction companies, housing cooperatives and private individuals to recycle and dispose of construction waste.

But the business collapsed in 2020 when its owners were arrested.

Bella Nilsson – who has since changed her name to Fariba Vancor – had previously told Swedish media that the company had acted in accordance with the law and stressed that she was the victim of a conspiracy by business competitors.

“She has an explanation for all this,” her lawyer Jan Tibbling told the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter on Monday.

The police investigation is considered Sweden's largest case of environmental crime. It covers more than 45,000 pages and is expected to interview 150 witnesses.

One of the prosecutors, Linda Schon, told Dagens Nyheter that the prosecution had to be limited to 21 locations because time was running out.

“There may have been a number of locations we were unable to investigate,” she said, “but we believe 21 locations are enough to show that the crimes were systematic.”

Several municipalities demanded compensation for cleanup and decontamination costs totaling $25.4 million.

One of the biggest complaints comes from Botkyrka municipality, where two Think Pink garbage piles burned for months in 2020 and 2021 after spontaneously catching fire. One of them was located near two nature reserves.

The trial is scheduled to begin on Tuesday and last until May 2025.