In 2019, AF Bostäder renewed its goal for waste management and continued to create simpler waste sorting conditions for the students. The approach involves combining practical and well thought-out measures with encouragement, nudging and inspiration.
AF Bostäder now has a goal to increase the percentage of sorted waste to 60% of the total waste volume by 2024.
“This is our second goal for waste management – the first was reached in 2018 – and we hope to continue to make progress,” says Anna, former Property Manager at AF Bostäder. “We follow up our results continuously through fraction measurements from Lund’s sanitation department and through spot checks of residual waste.”
The housing areas’ waste and bulky waste stations form the basis for waste management. The flow to and from these stations is to work smoothly, from a student throwing away refuse at their housing to it being transported away by lorry in the right fraction.
“Careful planning of waste processes is required so that everything is to work optimally,” says Anna. “When we design our stations and waste rooms, we get good assistance from, among others, the sanitation department’s experience, our caretakers, feedback from lorry drivers and the wishes of our customers. On all the corridors there is space for most of the fractions, either in a smartly equipped box room or hidden away in furniture. All those living in an apartment receive a practical sorting bag as a moving-in present.”
Inspiring the customers is equally as important as efficient flows. Sorting waste is an experience that should be simple, clean and neat, and feel right.
“The waste stations are being converted to a greater extent into Underground Waste Systems (UWSs). They are more efficient, more pleasant to use and neater,” says Anna. “In the case of bulky waste rooms, we started a rebuilding and interior improvement project in 2019 with an aim to make the rooms more inviting and nicer to visit.”
“We also receive a lot of ideas from our customers. After requests, we are now testing food waste bags that are double the usual size in our corridor housing. Many people have also asked for a way to dispose of cooking oil, a common cause of blocked sewage pipes. We have therefore introduced a fat funnel that makes it easy to save fat in PET bottles, which can then be handed in for recycling,” says Anna.

Latest update April 7, 2020