Sorpa takes recycling payment dispute to ombudsman

Waste-sorting operator Sorpa will ask Iceland’s parliamentary ombudsman to review a ministry ruling in its dispute with the Recycling Fund over payments for sorting beverage cartons, mbl.is reported.

At a September board meeting, Sorpa’s managing director was instructed to refer the ruling to the ombudsman. The minutes were recently published on Sorpa’s website.

The dispute concerns the cost of manually separating beverage packaging from other mixed paper. Sorpa sought more than 67 million Icelandic krónur for costs in 2024 and nearly 15 million krónur for 2023. The fund rejected the claims.

The Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Climate dismissed Sorpa’s administrative appeal. In a ruling dated July 31, it said the disagreement concerned how the parties’ contract should be interpreted. It also found that the fund’s decisions were not administrative decisions and could not be appealed under the relevant provision of administrative law.

The decisions, dated July 3, 2025, rejected Sorpa’s claim for 2024 costs and its request to reopen the fund’s decision on costs for 2023.