Circular Economy: Material Flows and Sustainable Materials – Practical Applications

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A Circular Uppsala without Waste

It’s time to take a closer look at Uppsala Municipality’s circularity program and action plan, which have been developed in collaboration with municipality administrations and companies, residents, civil society, and local businesses.

Uppsala’s Waste Management Plan for a Circular Economy outlines a framework to reduce waste, increase material reuse and recycling, and decrease environmental impacts. The plan focuses on designing products for circularity, encouraging sustainable living to reduce new consumption, and making correct waste handling easy. The overall goal is to decrease total waste volume, in alignment with the global sustainability goals.

The program details two goal areas.

Goal Area 1: From Waste to Resource
This goal area groups together material recycling, reuse, and hazardous waste. The ambition level for the goals indicates the minimum level that must be achieved for the goals to be considered fulfilled.

Impact Goals:

Material recycling shall increase.
Reuse shall increase.
The amount of incorrectly sorted hazardous waste shall decrease.
Negative environmental impact from closed landfills shall decrease.

Goal Area 2: Waste Management with People in Focus
This goal area groups together waste minimization, littering, work environment, and service. The ambition level for the goals indicates the minimum level that must be achieved for the goals to be considered fulfilled.

Impact Goals:

Citizens contribute to a sustainable society.
The work environment for those who handle waste shall be good.
Good service.

You can read the whole program here (in Swedish) and the action plan here (in Swedish). You can find translation tools online for English or other languages.

Has the municipality reached its ambitious goals? Uppsala Water and Waste (Uppsala Vatten och Avfall), a municipally owned company, states in its yearly report (2024, including sustainability data) that water usage and waste per capita have decreased, but it’s unclear what level needs to be reached to achieve a long-term, circular, sustainable level. It should be noted here that Uppsala Water and Waste are not responsible for achieving all circularity and waste-related goals in the municipality. You can read more here (in Swedish).

In the Uppsala and Agenda 2030 Voluntary Local Review (2021), the municipality lists different focus areas it has been working on, with more information here, and different waste and recycling measurement series are available here (in Swedish).

Uppsala’s Waste Flow and Waste Map

The Waste Map project was conducted during the spring semester 2025 by Uppsala University students Emma Nyberg, Ida Nordström, Tyra Olding, and Ebba Gilén, supported by CEMUS and studio Alternatives. In their final report, one of the conclusions points to a key factor when it comes to waste management in Uppsala:

Ultimately a circular waste system cannot be reached without collectively working on preventing waste. Preventive measures were not explored in depth in this report since limited information was provided by interviewed actors. This could indicate prevention is not prioritized in the extent that the waste hierarchy aims for. A conclusion is that Uppsala municipality, companies and individuals need to shift more focus into preventing waste at its source to achieve a circular Uppsala.

Read the full report and explore the Uppsala Waste Map here.

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A Circular Uppsala without Waste

Uppsala’s Waste Flow and Waste Map

Further reading, learning and references