
Government bans scrubber discharge in Swedish waters
The Swedish government has decided to ban discharge from scrubbers – systems that shower exhaust gases on ships. The ban will apply to all ships in Swedish waters.

Maria Granberg
This is very welcome news, and an important step to protect the marine environment and marine ecosystems along Sweden's coasts. Scrubber water from ships is a significant and completely unnecessary source of environmentally hazardous substances in the marine environment, and something that all countries should address urgently
, says Maria Granberg, marine ecotoxicologist at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute.
For many years, IVL has been studying the effects of discharge from scrubber systems to both air and water. The research shows that ships' scrubber water is already toxic at very low concentrations.
Scrubbers clean ships' exhaust gases by showering them with seawater. This reduces sulphur emissions to the air, but when the scrubber water is then discharged into the sea, sulphur and many other pollutants dissolve in the water, harming the marine environment. The use of scrubbers has increased since the introduction of stricter requirements on the sulphur content in fuel. As a result, sulphur emissions to air have decreased, but emissions to water have increased.
Both Sweden and Finland have now decided to ban discharge from scrubbers, and Denmark has announced a forthcoming ban. The decision means that discharges from open ship scrubbers to water will be banned in Swedish maritime territory from 1 July 2025. Discharge from all scrubbers to water will be banned in Swedish maritime territory from 1 January 2029.
But with this decision, no ships operating in our seas will be allowed to discharge scrubber water into Swedish maritime territory
, says Andreas Carlson, Minister for Infrastructure and Housing, in a government press release.
The government also states that further work is now under way in various international contexts to reduce these discharges in as many maritime areas as possible.
It is positive and important that the government is working towards a global scrubber ban. The ocean has no borders and pollution spreads between different areas. A global scrubber ban would also mean that the highly harmful heavy fuel oil would have to be replaced by more eco-friendly alternatives. We should consider which fuels should be avoided and prioritised as a replacement for heavy fuel oil – that's the next step
, says Maria Granberg.
Read the government's press release External link. (in Swedish).
In case of questions, contact:
Maria Granberg, maria.granberg@ivl.se, tel. +46 (0)10-788 65 81