Sustainable management of materials and waste is an important part of SBB’s responsibility towards the environment. At SBB, dealing sustainably with materials and waste means avoiding or reducing waste wherever possible, collecting recyclables separately and disposing of residual waste in environmentally compatible ways.

Increasing expenditure to keep trains and stations clean.

Litter volumes have increased dramatically in trains and at railway stations. Changing senses of value in society, the vast range of take-away food available today and all the packaging it comes in, excessive alcohol consumption and a lack of moral courage are all factors driving this development. Littering negatively impacts customer satisfaction among SBB’s passengers and erodes their sense of security. With its recently launched Trashbusters anti-littering campaign, SBB is trying to raise customer awareness of the need to deal responsibly with rubbish on trains.

SBB has four simple tips everyone who want to help prevent littering on trains:

1. Put newspapers and magazines on the parcel shelf.
2. Remove small litter items from the seat and table and place them in the waste bins on board the train, on the platform or elsewhere at the station.
3. Take larger litter items with you when you leave the train and put them in the waste bins on the platform or elsewhere at the station.
4. Use the waste bins provided to throw away litter at stations.

SBB collects whatever litter is left on seats and on the floor despite these tips and recycles it wherever economical to do so. In 2011, SBB recycled 5730 tons of waste paper, 51 tons of glass and 159 tons of PET.