Waste handling
KTH's responsibilities
KTH shall, as far as possible, minimise waste in its activities and develop its systems to avoid unnecessary waste. In order to achieve this, KTH has, for example, installed hand dryers in the toilets and established rules for procurement and purchasing. The waste hierarchy shall represent a guiding document, i.e. we must work to prevent the generation of waste by working according to the following priority order:
- Minimise the generation of waste
- Reuse materials, equipment, furniture, etc.
- Recycle materials using source sorting
- Recover energy through the incineration of solid waste
- Send to landfill
Recycling and landfill
Waste from activities
Many activities on Campus generate waste that needs to be recycled. KTH has different types of waste rooms for waste disposal and recycling. The types of waste that can be disposed of/recycled from our activities are:
- Food waste
- Source-sorted waste/packaging
- Bulk waste
- Hazardous waste – electronics and laboratory waste
- Household waste/combustible waste
KTH’s waste management system (KTH Intranet, in Swedish)
Please note that there is some waste that cannot be sorted at KTH, such as paint residues. If your project uses paint, it should instead be brought to a recycling centre or environmental station.
Personal waste
Most buildings at KTH have separate bins for paper, plastic and other waste. The library is also carrying out a pilot project with several sorting bins to facilitate the sorting of packaging and waste from individual activities.
You should not bring in your household waste to sort at KTH. If you live in a shared residence, there is typically a common sorting area for packaging, food waste, electrical waste and bulk waste. Otherwise, sort your packaging at recycling stations near your residence and hazardous waste at recycling centres and environmental stations. Information about different types of waste and how they are sorted can be found at sopor.nu (in Swedish).
Near KTH Campus on Valhallavägen, there is Roslagstull's recycling centre (svoa.se in Swedish) and Miljöstation Östermalm (svoa.se in Swedish) where you can bring your hazardous waste. At Roslagstull’s recycling centre, you can also borrow a cargo bike to transport your waste.