Photo: BMLFUW/UBA/Gröger
Waste as raw material
Growth rates for the separate collection and utilisation of wastes are high in Austria. Ever more wastes are collected and used separately. The environmentally compatible and sustainable use of waste as a resource is one of the big challenges of responsible waste management.
In 2005, totally about 54 million tonnes of waste were collected. Structured along the different classes these were:· 41 percent Excavated materials
· 20 percent Other waste
· 12 percent Construction waste
· 9 percent Wood waste without packaging
· 6 percent Waste from households and other institutions
· 4 percent Recoverables from trade and industry
· 3 percent Ashes and dusts from thermal waste treatment and from combustion systems
· 3 percent Green wastes, street cleaning waste and market waste
· 2 percent Municipal sewage sludge and faecal sludge
In the field of household waste, consumers through their preparedness to collect and separate waste bear great responsibility.
In 2005 approx. 3.4 million tonnes of household waste were produced in Austria, i.e. more than 6 percent of the total waste.
On average, each inhabitant produced 421 kg of waste in 2005. These included:
· 47 percent Bulky waste
· 18 percent Waste paper
· 16 percent Biogenic waste
· 5.5 percent Waste glass
· 3.8 percent Waste wood
· 3.7 percent Light fraction
· 3.5 percent Waste metals and household scrap
· 0.8 percent Waste electrical appliances
· 0.6 percent Problematic material
· 0.6 percent Waste textiles
· 0.5 percent Other recoverables
The 2002 Waste Management Act provides important impulses for this development:
· Protection of humans and the environment
· Prudent use of natural resources
· Storage of emission-neutral residuals with prudent use of landfills
· Precautionary principle
· Taking into account substance flows to provide for ecological cycles
Which waste may be landfilled? Since 2004 only thermally or mechanical-biologically pre-treated wastes have been permitted for landfilling.
With the implementation of the (Austrian) Landfill Ordinance it is ensured that no considerable chemical reactions will occur in waste deposits which might have the potential of putting a risk to soil, air or water. Waste must be treated either in mechanical-biological treatment plants or in waste incineration plants. In some Federal Provinces, regional exceptions to this rule may exist until 2009 at the latest.
To Austria, this means: Less greenhouse gases, less groundwater pollution and prudent use of resources. At the same time the energy contained in wastes is used and future generations will not be confronted with high expenditures for the remediation of contaminated sites.
25.08.2008, Lebensministerium Öffentlichkeitsarbeit