Following a summer of record wildfires that burned roughly 250,000 hectares of forest, Swedish retailers and local groups are proposing a permanent end to the sale of disposable grills.
A total nationwide ban on lighting fires, including home barbecues, was introduced at the end of July at the request of the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (Myndigheten för samhällskydd och beredskap, MSB).
The disposable, aluminum pan grills – called engångsgrill,' or one-time grill – have long been offered by most local grocers and convenience stores and are a popular option for those who find themselves without a full-scale gridiron.
The countrys major supermarkets temporarily halted the sale of the grills during the summer heatwave. According to broadcaster SVT, Axfood is now considering permanently dropping the grills. Axfood, which owns supermarket chains Willys, Hemköp and Axfood Snabbgross, is the nations second-largest food retailer.
Axfoods head of sustainability said fire risk is just one reason behind the decision.
“Its really a bad product for reasons beyond just the fires. They create a lot of litter and theyre made of aluminium that is often not recycled so we are not going to sell them,” Åsa Domeij told SVT.
News of Axfoods decision was welcomed by the Archipelago Foundation (Skärgårdsstiftelsen), a preservation group that owns large areas of the Stockholm archipelago.
“The fire hazard is the most obvious problem but disposable grills also do permanent damage to a lot of rocks,” the foundations executive director, Anna Waxin, told SVT.
Axfoods major competitors, ICA and Coop, will allow individual stores to decide if they want to continue to sell disposable grills.
