Austria

With many thanks to SEWACO s.r.o. our WasteCulture country lead for Czech Republic, we are proud to bring in some new ideas about knowledge management and how important energy recovery from waste is for GHG mitigation.

Textile value chain actors call for incentives to close the textile loop and boost the demand for secondary raw materials.

Today, the European Landfill Association (ELA) that represents European landfill operators was founded in Cologne.

WtERT asked Dr. J. Hobohm, Managing Director of Gemeinsames Rücknahmesystem Servicegesellschaft mbH about high level events in this year. Her response is remarkable:

The Institute for Industrial Research (IWI) has produced a study that comprehensively analyses the economic value added of the sector for the first time. The result: last year, 2,998 companies in the waste and resources sector with around 31,000 employees generated 9.17 billion euros.

The current paper addresses the presentation of the district heating decarbonization strategy. By introducing the implementation project Large-Scale Heat Pump Spittelau, it will detail the efforts toward realizing this strategic goal.

The first reuse project funded by Elektroaltgeräte Koordinierungsstelle Austria GmbH (EAK), ‘Elektro To Go’, has been successfully implemented in the district of Rohrbach in Upper Austria and provides a strong example of a functioning regional circular economy.

18 Member States are at risk of missing one or both of the 2025 targets.

Over the last few years, global energy demand has risen, and this trend is expected to continue. Almost all European Union (EU) countries are suffering from a shortage of energy services. Annually, EU fossil fuel energy production falls; for example, in 2014, gas production fell by 11.2% compared to 2013. Energy imports, especially natural gas, have increased as a result of lower energy output. The EU is still heavily reliant on fossil fuel imports (oil and gas), and the cost of EU energy imports in 2017 increased by 26% (€266 billion).

By recognizing all three options for defossilization (biomass, recycling, CCU) as equivalent, as well as the equivalence of mechanical and chemical recycling of plastics and biomass, the economy would have the opportunity to develop technology competition and select the most economically advantageous options.

The dynamic macroeconomic one-region and multi-sector model WIFO.DYNK (dynamic new-Keynesian) was adapted to model the employment and value-added impacts of the Austrian waste economy in this respect. It is based on the most recent input-output tables of Statistics Austria.

The current combination, though, of using microemulsions of plant oil in water to extract mineral hydrocarbons in-situ from the soil and to separate that contaminated oil phase from water via non-wovens is novel and in preliminary experiments was shown be to very promising in terms of costs and performance.

This Outlook can help decision-makers understand the direction in which we are heading and help to assess which policies can support a more circular economy. The OECD stands ready to assist governments in making this transition by designing, developing and delivering better resource efficiency policies for better lives.

A report by Ecologic Institute and Climact shows that the draft National Energy and Climate Plans presented by governments at the start of 2019 are in acute need of improvement. They suffer from inadequate targets and insufficient details on the policies and financing needed to move towards net-zero emission economies in Europe. Member States also need to do better in involving their national stakeholders in providing input to the plans, to benefit from their expertise and to get them on board for future policies. Good practice examples exist around the EU to serve as inspiration for the final plans due by the end of the year.

The top priority of waste management in accordance with the Austrian Waste Management Act is waste prevention (§ 1 (2) AWG), which takes place largely outside the waste regime. Still, it is a prime task of waste management authorities to encourage the actual actor, producers of goods and products and consumers, to engage in waste prevention.

Sewage sludge treatment routes are mostly well established in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. While there are different approaches, the problem or task of processing and handling sewage sludge is widely considered solved. So why is this a trending topic?

Sewage sludge is the residue respectively waste product from waste-water treatment and consists of water and a mixture of separated solids. Municipal sewage sludge from municipal waste-water treatment plants usually contains plant nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. In addition, sewage sludge is contaminated with heavy metals from the waste-water and may additionally contain pollutants such as poorly degradable organic substances, microplastics, hormones, endocrine disruptors, pathogenic germs, drug residues, synthetically produced nanomaterials etc.

Modern procedures, optimised processes and consideration for the neighbours — Saubermacher’s new treatment plant for industrial and commercial waste water in Trofaiach represents the state-of-the-art. Chemical and physical processes convert liquid waste substances such as acids, lyes and oil/water mixes into clean water, with micro-organisms responsible for final purification. The company has invested some eight million Euros in the high-tech plant, which has the capacity to treat up to 25,000 tonnes of waste every year.

An overview will be presented on current R&D activities of the European project ADIR – running since 9/2015 - dealing with the automated disassembly, identification, separation and recovery of valuable materials from electronic equipment. Main focus are end-of-life cell phones and printed circuit boards from server and network electronics.

This is the first webinar that kicks off the strategic partnership between ISWA and be Waste Wise. As part of this partnership, ISWA will broadcast a series of webinars and online trainings which will address today’s most pressing global waste challenges.

January 16, in the presidential palace in Tehran the Energy Globe World Award 2017 winners were announced. Guests from 60 different nations joined the ceremony, among them ministers of the Iranian Government , who announced the winners.

In September 2017, Hedwig Vielreicher, Director of WtERT-Germany attends IRRC Waste to Energy in Vienna.

Since 1980, Wien Energie GmbH has been operating a plant to treat sewage sludge, liquid and solid waste, hazardous industrial and commercial waste, as well as hospital waste, in two rotary furnace lines and four fluidized-bed furnace lines at Simmeringer Haide, 11. Haidequerstraße 6, 1110 Vienna, to produce district heating.