A Danish couple who fled their “forest resort” in Sweden for Guatemala and left behind a large tax debt and 158 barrels of human waste have hit back at criticism and claimed that their handling of the compost toilets was “very normal”.
Flemming Hansen and Mette Helbæk, both chefs, abandoned their purportedly eco-friendly retreat, Stedsans, in Halland, southern Sweden, last year. They owed large sums to Swedish and Danish tax authorities. They have since set up a business in Guatemala.
The story behind their disappearance and the abandoned human waste was revealed this week after an investigation by the newspapers Politiken and Dagens Nyheter. It also found that the couple had allowed wastewater to run into the forest and alleged that animals had died as a result of being left outside and that others were abandoned.
Hansen and Helbæk’s actions were described by local authorities as “environmental crime”. However, on Thursday, the couple claimed they were acting lawfully.
Commenting on the barrels left behind from their compost toilets, they said in a post on social media: “For people in rural Sweden it’s a very normal thing.”
They added: “It’s also a very important part of the permaculture principles that you deal with your own shit.”
The property’s new owner is aware of the barrels and they can be used for compost, they said. “Half of them are ready to use this spring, the other half is ready in 1 year, following the guidelines of Swedish law.”
But Daniel Helsing, the head of building and environment at the local authority, Hylte council, said the couple did not follow the necessary requirements for composting waste.
“There are a number of requirements that you have to follow and they have not,” he said. “Normal practice, if you do not have a water closet solution, is that you have a collecting service for your barrels that the local authorities in basically every county in Sweden provide. That would be the most common solution to handling toilet waste if you are not using water closets.”
It is possible to compost toilet waste but it has to be done according to local authority instructions, he said. “You would have to report that you are going to compost toilet waste and that gives us as the local authority a chance to set out rules and guidelines for how to do it.”
The Swedish Tourist Association said it was unfamiliar with the methods used at Stedsans. A spokesperson said: “I have never heard anything like that.”
Hansen and Helbæk accused the journalists behind the investigation of lying and of causing “our life’s biggest (literal!) shitstorm”.
They added: “The article claims that we have been damaging the local environment with our procedures at our permaculture resort and that we have left animals to die. All these claims and several others are false.”
Accusing the local authorities of being cowards, Hansen and Helbæk said that Hylte council was aware of their toilets. They had, the couple said, shown the toilets and procedures to authority representatives “several times”. “Either the municipality lies, or they have not done the work we have paid them to do, which is to make sure that all rules are followed.”
Hylte council said they had not been paid to deal with waste and that they were assessing whether it would be reported to police.
Hansen and Helbæk said their company had gone bankrupt and that they had tax debt in Denmark that had “multiplied tenfold” because of interest and fees over a decade. To prevent the debt from growing, they said, they would have to pay Danish tax authorities – which they accused of being “cold-hearted” and “narcissistic” – more than 50,000 DKK a month (£5,800), which they suggest they are unable to.
Hansen previously said they owed the Swedish tax agency “over 7m” SEK (more than £550,000).
Among the reasons they fled to Guatemala, they said, was “to give our family a second chance”. Describing it as their birthright, they added: “If you see us as villains for making this choice, we are sorry.”
