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Associated Press 

The ship RMS Aries was on its way to an incinerator about 40 kilometers south of Stockholm when several activists from the Swedish chapter of Greenpeace unfurled a banner from a railway bridge and sent a ship to stop it.

The barge was forced to put down anchor in the channel and remained there late into the evening.

The environmental group was demanding that the Aries return with the waste to the Netherlands and that the government stop further imports, claiming it would reduce the incentive to recycle and emit dangerous chemicals into the atmosphere.

Two Greenpeace activists were prepared to stay on the bridge overnight, threatening to rappel off the bridge into its path if the ship tried to go underneath.

"Sweden is not a dumping ground for waste from other countries,"

Gunnar Lind said from aboard the MV Greenpeace. "We will stay here until the ship goes back to Holland."

Officials with Soederenergi, which owns the Igelstaverket incinerator that was to receive the waste, said the action took them by surprise.

Acting managing director Leif Bodinson said the rubbish consisted of pellets made of paper and some plastic and didn't pose an environmental threat.

"We have invested more than 200 million kronor ($19 million) in a special furnace so that we can avoid burning with fossil fuels," he was quoted as saying by the Swedish news agency TT.

Police were stationed around the bridge and monitoring the situation but didn't plan any action before morning.