1001 Smart Cities
🇳🇴 Oslo

Optical Waste Sorting by Bag Colour (Haraldrud & Klemetsrud)

🤖 AI-generated summary · ◆ 14 sourced claims · 🔎 Last verified

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

14 sourced claims on this page, none individually verified yet — turn on “Sources in the text” to see each one.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

One bin, three bag colours, no pre-sorting at the curb — cameras do the separating. Oslo's own data show only a third of plastic and about half of food waste still land in the wrong bag.

Outcome🔄 Ongoing
Evidence🏛️ Official
what does this mean?The strongest source is the operator's or the city's own reporting — an official report, dataset or press release. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Run byCity of Oslo — Renovasjons- og gjenvinningsetaten (REG), using Envac's Optibag optical-sorting technology
Scale🏙️ City-wide

Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,167 documented projects · 🏙️ 7 more in Oslo · 🗑️ Waste & recycling guide · 🌱 Environment projects

Since 2009, Oslo residents have sorted food waste into green bags and plastic packaging into purple bags (blue before 2021), tossing all bag types into one bin picked up by ordinary trucks. Optical scanners at Haraldrud and Klemetsrud then sort the bags by colour: food goes to biogas, plastic to recycling, residual waste to district heating. Combined capacity: 150,000 tonnes a year.

Live 📅 since 2009

📊 Impact

Oslo's own climate agency reports that participation lags the system: in the most recent published data (2023, released March 2025), only about a third of the 16.3 kg of plastic packaging each resident threw away that year was sorted into the correct purple bag, and roughly half of all food waste still ends up in ordinary residual-waste bags rather than the green ones the optical scanners are built to catch.

🎓 Lesson

The bottleneck is upstream, at the kitchen counter: a 2021 national bag-colour standard and repeated information campaigns still leave most residents putting plastic in the wrong bag. Worth noting: this is a distinct system from the Klemetsrud waste-to-energy plant next door (see oslo-klemetsrud-carbon-capture) — one recovers materials from bags, the other burns what's left.

🌱 EnvironmentWaste & recyclingCircular economySensors & IoT

Sources

↗ City of Oslo — Haraldrud sorting facility (Renovasjons- og gjenvinningsetaten)Official municipal page: current bag fractions, colours, and that bags are separated by colour in the optical sorting plants.
↗ City of Oslo — how to sort waste at source (Hvordan kildesortere i Oslo)Official, current page confirming citywide/mandatory scope and today's bag colours (green/purple/residual, all one bin).
↗ City of Oslo — Klemetsrud sorting facilityOfficial page for the second (2012) optical sorting line, distinct from the Klemetsrud waste-to-energy/CCS plant.
↗ Fagforbundet (Norwegian trade-union magazine) — 'Søppelsortering – et klimavennlig dugnadsprosjekt'Published 10 October 2016Independent press, 10 Oct 2016: combined 150,000 tonnes/year capacity across the three sorting lines.
↗ Teknisk Ukeblad (TU.no) — 'Verdens største optiske sorteringsanlegg'Published 28 November 20142014 report on the optical plant: 132,000 t of 410,000 t recovered, a plastic-stream purity of 64.7 per cent by weight, and the 2012 milestone when every Oslo household was sorting.
Show 3 more sourcesShow fewer
↗ City of Oslo — Klimaetaten, 'Dette kaster oslofolk oftest feil i de lilla posene'Published 3 March 2025Official city climate-agency page, published 3 March 2025: 2023 sorting-rate data used for the impact figure below.
↗ Avfallsbransjen.no — 'Nå bytter Oslo til lilla plastavfallsposer'Published 15 November 2021Independent waste-industry trade press, 15 Nov 2021: the switch from blue to purple plastic bags under a new national colour standard.
↗ Envac — Oslo project case studyVendor (Optibag optical-sorting technology supplier) case study; used for narrative/technology context only, with its unverified superlatives (first-in-Scandinavia, exact resident count, 180,000 t/yr) softened or dropped per the independent-corroboration checks above.

📅 How old is the evidence?

Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: since 2009. 4 of 8 sources carry a publication date, from 28 November 2014 to 3 March 2025.

When the sources were published

  1. Teknisk Ukeblad · pressTeknisk Ukeblad (TU.no) — 'Verdens største optiske sorteringsanlegg'
  2. Fagforbundet · ngoFagforbundet (Norwegian trade-union magazine) — 'Søppelsortering – et klimavennlig dugnadsprosjekt'
  3. Avfallsbransjen.no · pressAvfallsbransjen.no — 'Nå bytter Oslo til lilla plastavfallsposer'
  4. Klimaetaten, Oslo kommune (Klima Oslo) · city governmentCity of Oslo — Klimaetaten, 'Dette kaster oslofolk oftest feil i de lilla posene'

Every source, with links ↑

What happened to this record

  1. Sources last read
  2. Entered the record

Every revision, permanent →

Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 14 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence Passport · public beta 14 addressable claims, 8 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The passport is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 14

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-8baef75205427b6a quantitative
Since 2009, Oslo residents have sorted food waste into green bags and plastic packaging into purple bags
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The waste-industry report states that Oslo had used the coloured plastic-waste bag since 2009 — 'Oslo har benyttet posen siden 2009' — and the city's current sorting page states the present colours: 'I Oslo kildesorterer vi matavfall i grønne poser, plastemballasje i lilla poser, og restavfall i vanlige handleposer' (in Oslo we sort food waste into green bags, plastic packaging into purple bags, and residual waste into ordinary carrier bags).
Caveat
The 2009 date refers to the plastic bag Oslo introduced then, which was blue; the purple bag arrived only in late 2021, so no resident sorted into a purple bag in 2009. The engineering press separately reported that it was 2012 before every Oslo household sorted its waste, so the scheme reached the whole city later than the start date suggests.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Avfallsbransjen.no — 'Nå bytter Oslo til lilla plastavfallsposer'
  2. City of Oslo — how to sort waste at source (Hvordan kildesortere i Oslo)
Claim 2 clm-52df51d5dd8fb809 quantitative
(blue before 2021)
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The trade report of 15 November 2021 announces the change and describes the outgoing bag as blue: 'De blå såkalte Optibag-posene har lenge vært en kilde til bekymring' (the blue so-called Optibag bags have long been a source of concern). The union magazine, writing in 2016, describes the system then in force: 'I Oslo er det blå poser for plast, grønne for matavfall og vanlige poser for restavfall.'
Caveat
The switch was announced in November 2021 and reached the shops over the following weeks, so blue and purple bags circulated side by side for a time. The city's own Haraldrud plant page still describes plastic packaging as arriving in 'blå/lilla poser' — blue or purple.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Avfallsbransjen.no — 'Nå bytter Oslo til lilla plastavfallsposer'
  2. Fagforbundet (Norwegian trade-union magazine) — 'Søppelsortering – et klimavennlig dugnadsprosjekt'
Claim 3 clm-c2d24ae9e5f55b40 descriptive
tossing all bag types into one bin picked up by ordinary trucks
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The city's sorting page states that all three bags go into the same bin outside the home — 'De tre posene legger du i samme dunk utenfor boligen' — and that after collection they are driven to one of Oslo's sorting plants at Haraldrud or Klemetsrud: 'Etter innsamling blir de kjørt til et av Oslos sorteringsanlegg på Haraldrud og Klemetsrud.'
Caveat
The page confirms the single bin and the single collection round, but it says nothing about the collection vehicles. That the bags are picked up by ordinary refuse trucks rather than by a dedicated fleet is not stated by any listed source.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Oslo — how to sort waste at source (Hvordan kildesortere i Oslo)
Claim 4 clm-23943c59521a2665 descriptive
Optical scanners at Haraldrud and Klemetsrud then sort the bags by colour
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Both municipal plant pages state that the bags are separated from one another by colour in the optical sorting plants. Haraldrud: 'Posene sorteres fra hverandre etter farge i de optiske sorteringsanleggene.' Klemetsrud: 'Posene sorteres fra hverandre etter farge i det optiske sorteringsanlegget.' Both pages describe the plants as receiving household waste sorted into three fractions.
Caveat
Neither plant page gives the year its line opened, and no listed source dates Haraldrud to 2009 or Klemetsrud to 2012. The union magazine says Oslo got its optical sorting plant in 2010, and the engineering press says only that by 2012 every Oslo household was sorting its waste.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Oslo — Haraldrud sorting facility (Renovasjons- og gjenvinningsetaten)
  2. City of Oslo — Klemetsrud sorting facility
Claim 5 clm-b6cc4bd4e6b001f7 descriptive
food goes to biogas, plastic to recycling, residual waste to district heating
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The city page traces all three streams. Food waste: 'Det blir sendt til Oslos biogassanlegg på Nes på Romerike', where it becomes biogas and bio-fertiliser. Plastic: 'De lilla posene blir sendt til gjenvinningsanlegg i Europa (det meste til Sverige, og noe til Tyskland)', where it is granulated and sold as feedstock for new plastic. Residual waste: 'Restavfallet går til energigjenvinning her i Oslo. Det betyr at vi brenner avfallet og bruker varmen til å produsere fjernvarme.'
Caveat
Norway has no plant of its own for recycling plastic, so the purple bags are exported; the city page names Sweden and Germany as the destinations and does not report how much of the exported plastic actually becomes new material.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Oslo — how to sort waste at source (Hvordan kildesortere i Oslo)
Claim 6 clm-2c809ca4341544b0 quantitative
Combined capacity: 150,000 tonnes a year.
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The union magazine reports the figure as a combined one: 'Anleggene er fordelt på tre linjer, to på Haraldrud og en på Klemetsrud. De kan til sammen sortere 150 000 tonn husholdningsavfall i året' — the plants are spread over three lines, two at Haraldrud and one at Klemetsrud, and together they can sort 150,000 tonnes of household waste a year.
Caveat
This is a stated capacity from October 2016, not a measured throughput, and the source counts three sorting lines where the entry names two plants. The engineering press reported in 2014 that 132,000 tonnes of Oslo's waste was actually being sorted optically.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Fagforbundet (Norwegian trade-union magazine) — 'Søppelsortering – et klimavennlig dugnadsprosjekt'
Claim 7 clm-ba131b7a1a81cfa0 descriptive
Oslo's own climate agency reports
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The page is published by Klimaetaten, the City of Oslo's climate agency, and relays the waste agency's own audit: '2023 var sist gang Renovasjon- og gjenvinningsetaten (REG) i Oslo gikk gjennom avfallet til oslofolk. Da ble et fast utvalg avfallsposer åpnet og alt avfall analysert' — in 2023 REG last went through residents' waste, opening a fixed sample of bags and analysing everything in them.
Caveat
The climate agency is passing on the waste agency REG's picking analysis rather than reporting measurements of its own. Both are arms of the City of Oslo, which also runs the sorting plants, so this is the operator reporting on itself.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Oslo — Klimaetaten, 'Dette kaster oslofolk oftest feil i de lilla posene'
Claim 8 clm-a674fe70276255eb quantitative
in the most recent published data (2023, released March 2025)
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The page carries the publication line '3 March, 2025' and states that 2023 was the last time REG went through residents' waste. It closes by looking forward to the next analysis — 'Vi krysser fingrene for at vi har blitt enda flinkere til neste avfallsanalyse!' — confirming that the 2023 study was the newest at the time of writing.
Caveat
The page establishes that 2023 was the most recent analysis as of March 2025. Whether a newer analysis has appeared since is not covered by any listed source.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Oslo — Klimaetaten, 'Dette kaster oslofolk oftest feil i de lilla posene'
Claim 9 clm-52eda76682b4e046 quantitative
only about a third of the 16.3 kg of plastic packaging each resident threw away that year
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The page states it twice, in words and as a rate: 'Ifølge avfallsanalysen er kun en tredjedel av plastemballasjen sortert i riktig pose. Altså den lilla. Sorteringsgraden i lilla pose er på 33 prosent' — according to the waste analysis only a third of plastic packaging is sorted into the right bag, namely the purple one; the sorting rate for the purple bag is 33 per cent.
Caveat
The share is measured on the plastic packaging thrown away, not on the number of residents who sort it correctly, and it comes from a sample of opened bags rather than from total collected tonnages.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Oslo — Klimaetaten, 'Dette kaster oslofolk oftest feil i de lilla posene'
Claim 10 clm-91704c60eb618436 descriptive
roughly half of all food waste still ends up in ordinary residual-waste bags
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The page names the half outright: 'For eksempel havner halvparten av matavfallet i restavfallsposen, noe som betyr at vi går glipp av verdifullt matavfall som kan omgjøres til biodrivstoff for kjøretøy og økologisk sertifisert gjødsel' — half the food waste ends up in the residual-waste bag, so valuable material that could become vehicle biofuel and certified organic fertiliser is lost. It adds that an average residual bag is more than 60 per cent waste that belonged elsewhere.
Caveat
The figure is stated as a round half, with no tonnage or percentage behind it, and it rests on the same 2023 sample of opened bags rather than on total collected volumes.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Oslo — Klimaetaten, 'Dette kaster oslofolk oftest feil i de lilla posene'
Claim 11 clm-94829eed9fa540e7 quantitative
a 2021 national bag-colour standard
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The trade report states that a national labelling system for source separation had been introduced in which plastic waste is colour-coded purple, and that Oslo's new bag followed it: 'Siden den gang er det innført et nasjonalt merkesystem for kildesortering, der plastavfall er fargekodet lilla. Det blir også løsningen for Oslos nye plastavfallspose.' The report is dated 15 November 2021 and describes Oslo's switch as starting that week.
Caveat
The report dates Oslo's own switch to November 2021 but does not say in which year the national colour standard was set; it describes the standard as already in place by then, so 2021 is the year Oslo followed it rather than a documented year for the standard itself.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Avfallsbransjen.no — 'Nå bytter Oslo til lilla plastavfallsposer'
Claim 12 clm-b64b76d812f7f076 descriptive
repeated information campaigns still leave most residents putting plastic in the wrong bag
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The climate-agency page reports the shortfall — 'Det betyr at to tredeler plastemballasje ikke blir sortert ut. Dette havner i restavfallet, faktisk over ti kilo plast per innbygger' (two thirds of plastic packaging is not sorted out and ends up in residual waste, more than ten kilos per resident) — and says that according to REG source separation in Oslo has stood still in recent years. The union magazine describes the city's chosen instrument as persuasion: 'Kommunen er mest opptatt av å gi folk informasjon og motivasjon, og å hjelpe til med tilrettelegging på kjøkkenet', with home visits and, as a last resort, a fee for households that do not sort.
Caveat
The sources measure the share of plastic that ends up in the wrong bag, not the share of residents who put it there, and neither counts the information campaigns or tests whether they changed behaviour.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Oslo — Klimaetaten, 'Dette kaster oslofolk oftest feil i de lilla posene'
  2. Fagforbundet (Norwegian trade-union magazine) — 'Søppelsortering – et klimavennlig dugnadsprosjekt'
Claim 13 clm-a2cf3da3fab1116b descriptive
this is a distinct system from the Klemetsrud waste-to-energy plant next door
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The city keeps a separate page for the sorting plant, 'Klemetsrud utsorteringsanlegg', which receives source-separated household waste and separates the bags by colour; its listed contact is the waste and recycling agency REG. The sorting page names a different operator for the energy plant: 'Renovasjons- og gjenvinningsetaten driver Haraldrudanlegget, mens Hafslund driver Klemetsrudanlegget. Det er Hafslund som driver fjernvarmeproduksjonen' — REG runs the Haraldrud plant while Hafslund runs the Klemetsrud one and the district-heating production.
Caveat
The engineering press describes the optical line as sited at the incineration plant itself — 'Det optiske sorteringsanlegget på forbrenningsanlegget til Oslo kommune' — so the two are co-located on one site rather than neighbouring addresses. What separates them is the process and the operator, not the distance.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Oslo — Klemetsrud sorting facility
  2. City of Oslo — how to sort waste at source (Hvordan kildesortere i Oslo)
Claim 14 clm-802ed9fb43a4956a descriptive
one recovers materials from bags, the other burns what's left
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The city page describes exactly this division: 'Der blir de grønne og lilla posene skilt vekk basert på posefargene, og sendt videre til materialgjenvinning. Restavfallet går gjennom anleggene og til forbrenning' — the green and purple bags are separated out on the basis of bag colour and sent on to material recovery, while the residual waste passes through the plants and goes to incineration.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Oslo — how to sort waste at source (Hvordan kildesortere i Oslo)
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-22-evidence-baseline effective 2026-08-04 · created 2026-08-22

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:560cb3d754a6409c554296b5e0371c42908b21db72482172bbf3496dcf236f36
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
14
of 14 claims mapped
8
source dossiers
4
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
City of Oslo — Renovasjons- og gjenvinningsetaten (REG), using Envac's Optibag optical-sorting technology
Actor types
city-government, private
Funding model
Not recorded
Funding description
Not recorded
Cost
Not recorded
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

8 source dossiers

City of Oslo — Haraldrud sorting facility (Renovasjons- og gjenvinningsetaten) oslo.kommune.no · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-dd49ca430fff08d6
Publisher
Name not classified · oslo.kommune.no
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-04
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Official municipal page: current bag fractions, colours, and that bags are separated by colour in the optical sorting plants.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
City of Oslo — how to sort waste at source (Hvordan kildesortere i Oslo) oslo.kommune.no · 5 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-979c40e042782d14
Publisher
Name not classified · oslo.kommune.no
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-04
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Official, current page confirming citywide/mandatory scope and today's bag colours (green/purple/residual, all one bin).

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
City of Oslo — Klemetsrud sorting facility oslo.kommune.no · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-bc51e1721db38613
Publisher
Name not classified · oslo.kommune.no
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-04
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Official page for the second (2012) optical sorting line, distinct from the Klemetsrud waste-to-energy/CCS plant.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Fagforbundet (Norwegian trade-union magazine) — 'Søppelsortering – et klimavennlig dugnadsprosjekt' fagforbundet.no · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-af1351ea936583f1
Publisher
Name not classified · fagforbundet.no
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2016-10-10
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-04
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Independent press, 10 Oct 2016: combined 150,000 tonnes/year capacity across the three sorting lines.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Teknisk Ukeblad (TU.no) — 'Verdens største optiske sorteringsanlegg' tu.no · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-e69fe2662a6e48a0
Publisher
Name not classified · tu.no
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2014-11-28
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-04
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

2014 report on the optical plant: 132,000 t of 410,000 t recovered, a plastic-stream purity of 64.7 per cent by weight, and the 2012 milestone when every Oslo household was sorting.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
City of Oslo — Klimaetaten, 'Dette kaster oslofolk oftest feil i de lilla posene' klimaoslo.no · 5 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-cb903bc90cb82a4a
Publisher
Name not classified · klimaoslo.no
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-03-03
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-04
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Official city climate-agency page, published 3 March 2025: 2023 sorting-rate data used for the impact figure below.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Avfallsbransjen.no — 'Nå bytter Oslo til lilla plastavfallsposer' avfallsbransjen.no · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-0b9354e350e19301
Publisher
Name not classified · avfallsbransjen.no
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2021-11-15
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-04
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Independent waste-industry trade press, 15 Nov 2021: the switch from blue to purple plastic bags under a new national colour standard.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Envac — Oslo project case study envacgroup.com · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-4b3eb81e2ebb13cf
Publisher
Name not classified · envacgroup.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-04
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Vendor (Optibag optical-sorting technology supplier) case study; used for narrative/technology context only, with its unverified superlatives (first-in-Scandinavia, exact resident count, 180,000 t/yr) softened or dropped per the independent-corroboration checks above.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇳🇴 Klemetsrud Waste-to-Energy Carbon Capture (CCS) · Oslo Same site, different layer: the sorted residual waste from these bins is burned next door, now being fitted with carbon capture. 🇳🇴 Bossnett - Underground Vacuum Waste Collection · Bergen Same country, opposite mechanism: Bergen moves waste by pipe to a terminal; Oslo sorts it by camera after an ordinary truck picks it up.

What does a resident get for separating their waste?

The topic guide asks where the meter sits. This asks the question from the kitchen: four cities, four completely different things offered to the person doing the sorting — and one of them is nothing at all.

ProjectSinceStatusOutcomeEvidenceRun byCostWhat the resident gets
Weight-Based Food Waste Fee (RFID Smart Bins)Seoul, 🇰🇷 2013 Live Succeeded Peer-reviewed City government not public A bill. The resident taps an ID card, the bin weighs the deposit and charges by the kilogram, replacing a flat fee folded into building charges.
Suroboyo Bus — Plastic-Bottle Fare TransitSurabaya, 🇮🇩 2018 Live Scaled back Media City government, Utility or public operator not public A bus ride — bottles for a two-hour ticket. The entry's own verdict is that the gimmick drew the attention and an ordinary cash fare kept the line running.
Buenos Aires's Registered Recuperadores Urbanos & Green CentresBuenos Aires, 🇦🇷 2002 Live Ongoing Peer-reviewed City government, Civil society not public A livelihood. After the crisis the city stopped policing its waste pickers and registered them instead, writing them into the collection service.
Optical Waste Sorting by Bag Colour (Haraldrud & Klemetsrud)Oslo, 🇳🇴 2009 Live Ongoing Official City government, Private company not public Nothing. Bag colour chosen at the kitchen counter is the whole interface, the machine sorts what arrives correctly, and the bottleneck stays upstream.

Explore the wider context

🗑️ Pipes or pennies📖 Pay-as-you-throw (PAYT)📖 Pneumatic waste collection📖 Adaptive traffic signals
📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Optical Waste Sorting by Bag Colour (Haraldrud & Klemetsrud)” — Oslo, Norway. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/oslo-optical-waste-sorting/ (last verified 2026-08-04). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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