Changing How We Drink Our Coffee

The journey towards a deposit scheme for reusable cups on campus

INSäNDARE

TEXT cHArlOTTE rAScHE AND NiKlAS bÄcKSTröM, STuDENTS FOr SuSTAiNAbiliTY

Do you also feel like an excessive amount of disposable cups is being wasted on campus every day? Shouldn’t there be a more sustainable way to consume your daily coffee? After all, KTH claims to put sustainability at the forefront of their work as an institution… but the overflowing bins of unsorted waste are not the only thing failing to convey a convincing message. With this article, the Students for Sustainability THS Association (S4S) wants to brief you on the current situation and present a silver lining regarding the cup issue!

What has happened so far

We know that solutions to a global problem like single-use packaging need to start at the local level. We also see a great desire for change, both among the KTH community and in society at large. Yet somehow, this has still not led to concrete action at our university, even though frustration about the issue has been raised in previous Osqledaren articles and at many sustainability student group meetings. There was an attempt to introduce the ‘Green Cup’ which, as many of you might know, failed to fulfill its purpose. This was mostly a result of its bad quality and the inconvenience of having to bring and wash your own cup. Throughout the past year many conversations and workshops with all the parties involved—café owners, students, KTH, and Akademiska Hus—took place in order to find a better way to reduce the use of single-use cups (among other issues). The conclusion was that our campus needs reusable cups which are not owned by individuals, but used and returned by means of a deposit scheme.

What is coming up

Now, after many months of rather fruitless attempts to find a concrete solution in collaboration with the KTH Sustainability Office, change is finally on the way. IVL (the Swedish Environmental Institute) has found supporting evidence in favour of a deposit scheme for reusable cups. They are currently working on a pilot project in Stockholm, and the KTH main campus will be a part of it! Together with our recently founded S4S Association and cafés/restaurants across Stockholm, two of which are on campus, an application for research funding through Vinnova (the Swedish Innovation Agency) is in the pipeline. Hopefully, we can start drinking coffee in a more sustainable way as of next semester. Similar systems are being successfully implemented across Europe, including at Linköping University.

The time has come for KTH to abandon old, unsustainable processes and practice what they preach!

Information about when and how will follow. Next, we would like to introduce Sonja and Diana from Stories (located in the library) and Sam from Coffice, who are on board for this pilot project! They have participated in the workshops mentioned above, and S4S interviewed them about what they are already doing to be more sustainable and what is coming up in the future.

Read the full interviews at Osqledaren. se!

Synthetic Biology Art Exhibition Winners

TEXT & FOTO IgEM

The theme of the exhibition was Synthetic biology, a new interdisciplinary area that studies how the components of existing organisms work in nature and re-purposes them to create new biological systems that can be used to generate biofuels and other green products such as renewable bio-based acrylic paint!

Triple Helix Feeling (grand prize)

Sergio Pachon-Dotor and Y. Vladimir Pabon-Martinez. Mentee: Sergio PachonDotor, Microbiology student (7th semester) at Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS) in Colombia. Mentor: Y. Vladimir Pabon-Martinez, Postdoc Researcher at Universidad Autonoma de Bucaramanga (UNAB) in Colombia.

How does your artwork reflect synthetic biology?

This artwork reflects Synthetic Biology because of the use of Molecular Dynamics DNA simulations combined with electronic music to describe a DNA triplex structure.

What is your opinion on synthetic biology? Synthetic Biology is a field fundamental for the development of future and novel biological technologies. Synthetic Biology connects Science, Technology and Innovation, and can be the way for humanity to generate new inventions and increase knowledge in Life Sciences. Moreover, Synthetic Biology inspires young students and researchers to use their creativity to create new strategies to face and solve scientific questions.