Forsøplingen beskrives ved oppsamlingsstedet.

In Norwegian, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun.

• forsøpling = littering / pollution by rubbish

• forsøplingen = the littering

• oppsamlingssted = collection point / collection site
• oppsamlingsstedet = the collection point / site

The ending depends on the noun’s gender:

• many common-gender nouns take -en
• many neuter nouns take -et

So English often uses a separate word, while Norwegian often uses a suffix.

Forsøplingen comes from the verb å forsøple, which means to litter or to make dirty/polluted with rubbish.

So forsøpling is the noun littering, trash pollution, or the state of being littered. In context, it often refers to a litter problem or the presence of rubbish in an area.

Because the sentence uses the definite form forsøplingen, it is talking about a specific case or a specific litter problem already understood from the context.

Because beskrives is the s-passive form of å beskrive.

• å beskrive = to describe
• beskriver = describes / is describing
• beskrives = is described / gets described

This -s ending is a very common way to form the passive in Norwegian, especially in formal or factual language.

So the structure is basically:

• Forsøplingen beskrives ... = The littering is described ...

An active version would be something like:

• Noen beskriver forsøplingen. = Someone describes the littering.

No. That is a very common point of confusion.

Here, ved is a preposition of place, meaning something like:

• at
• by
• near

So ved oppsamlingsstedet means at/by the collection point.

It does not mean by in the sense of the agent in a passive sentence. If you wanted to say described by someone, Norwegian would normally use av, not ved.

So:

• beskrevet av kommunen = described by the municipality
• ved oppsamlingsstedet = at/by the collection point

Because Norwegian makes compound nouns very freely, much more like German than like English.

oppsamlingsstedet can be broken down like this:

• oppsamling = collection / gathering
• sted = place / site
• oppsamlingssted = collection site / collection point
• oppsamlingsstedet = the collection site / point

English usually writes these as separate words, but Norwegian usually joins them into one word.

The -s- in the middle is a linking sound that often appears in compounds. It does not have a separate meaning here; it just helps form the compound naturally.

The grammatical subject is forsøplingen.

Even though forsøplingen is the thing being described, it is still the subject because the sentence is passive.

Compare:

• Active: Noen beskriver forsøplingen.
  Here, noen is the subject, and forsøplingen is the object.

• Passive: Forsøplingen beskrives.
  Here, forsøplingen becomes the subject.

This is similar to English:

• Someone describes the littering
• The littering is described

Yes. The given sentence has normal, neutral main-clause order:

• Forsøplingen beskrives ved oppsamlingsstedet.

If you want to emphasize the location, you can move the prepositional phrase to the front:

• Ved oppsamlingsstedet beskrives forsøplingen.

That is still correct, but because Norwegian is a verb-second language, the verb must stay in second position. So when ved oppsamlingsstedet comes first, beskrives must come before forsøplingen.

This is a very common Norwegian pattern.

Yes, Norwegian sometimes could use indefinite forms in other contexts, but the definite forms here suggest that both things are specific and identifiable in the situation.

• forsøplingen suggests a particular litter problem or the littering being discussed
• oppsamlingsstedet suggests a particular known collection point

If you changed them to indefinite forms, the sentence would sound more general or less anchored in a specific context.

So the definite forms help make the sentence sound like it refers to a known place and a known issue, which is very common in official, descriptive, or instructional language.