Key features of Austrian Waste Management Strategy

General
The targets and measures of the Federal Waste Management Plan are based on the objectives and principles of the Waste Management Act 2002.

Therefore, based on the precautionary principle and sustainability, waste management is geared to:

1. to prevent the harmful or detrimental effects on humans, animals and plants and their natural resources or reduce any adverse effects on general human well-being to a minimum,
   
2. to minimise the emission of air pollutants and climate-relevant gases,
   
3. to conserve resources (raw materials, water, energy, landscape, areas, landfill volumes),
   
4. in the case of recycling, to ensure that the materials reclaimed do not present a greater risk than do the comparable primary raw materials or products from primary raw materials and
   
5. to ensure that only such waste remains as can be deposited without danger to future generations.

These objectives are to be achieved according to the following principles:

1. The quantities of waste and their hazardous contents should be minimized (waste prevention).
   
2. Waste should be recovered only to the extent that it is ecologically useful and technically feasible to do so, and only if the resulting extra costs are not disproportionate to other waste treatment processes, and if a market for the reclaimed substances or energy already exists or can be created (waste recovery).
   
3. Non-recoverable waste should be treated according to its composition, through biological, thermal, chemical or physical processes. Solid residue should be as non-reactive as possible and properly stored (waste disposal).

The targets of the Federal Waste Management Plan should therefore be derived from the Waste Management Act and not vice-versa with respect to the following principles:

• Waste prevention,
  
• Waste recovery and
  
• Waste disposal

In concrete terms, this means that waste prevention and recovery are not to be pursued as objectives in and of themselves. Rather, the goal is to achieve the objectives of the Waste Management Act (especially with respect to protecting human life and the environment, as well as resource conservation) with an optimal mix of waste prevention, recovery and disposal.

The waste management policy is an important part of the overall environmental protection policy and is based on the recognized principle of sustainable development and its pillars ecology, economy, and security for society. The core is continued development of conventional waste management (safe disposal of waste already generated) for resource management based on considerations controlled by flows of materials and goods.

Successful measures for waste prevention (qualitative and quantitative) must start with the production process itself. Meaningful waste recovery presupposes that a combination of ecological expediency and technical feasibility can be achieved at a reasonable cost. This means that there can be no clear dividing line between waste management measures and those of waste suppliers. Rational decisions leading to reliable results must be based on knowledge from the analysis of cross-system flows of materials and goods.

There is no conflict between the measures taken to ensure environmentally-friendly waste treatment (disposal) and the principles of prevention and recovery. Despite the hierarchical organisation of the principles of the Waste Management Act, the objective must be attainment through long-term destruction of (organic) harmful substances and safe discarding of (inorganic) harmful substances into final sinks.

The requirement of 100% waste recovery competes with the objective that the reclaimed substances must not be more hazardous than the comparable primary raw materials. Environmental hazards also result from the accumulation of pollutants.

The distribution of harmful substances in the environment also runs contrary to resource conservation insofar as the materials can no longer be reclaimed. On the other hand, the boundaries between recovery and disposal are fluid and often leave room for legal interpretation. Recovery processes are often connected with environmental pollution. A complete conversion to waste recovery, just like “zero-emissions” strategies, can only be achieved through fraudulent labelling.

The top-priority objective is and shall continue to be the protection of humans and the environment, together with the lowest possible emissions and best-possible use of the available resources. Ecological material flow management means sustainable control of manmade material flows with minimal environmental pollution.

Sustainability of waste management is also influenced by the precautionary principle. In particular, waste prevention measures can help combat environmental harm at the source. Increasing the responsibility of manufacturers is intended to lend weight to the “polluter pays” principle.

The basic principle that continues to apply is that all measures should be evaluated in terms of their cost reflectiveness. Such measures must be feasible in terms of their cost/benefit ratio in the national economy.

The production of goods primarily depends on the constant exploitation of raw materials. Both the enormous consumption rate of fossil fuels and the amounts of mineral raw materials being exploited are continuing to rise. This gigantic turnover of materials prompted by the economy is leading to ever greater amounts of waste and harmful substances. This could be remedied by curbing the use of materials and increasing the use of cycle management, which takes into account the possibility of re-use and recovery in the goods production phase already and thus helps prevent harmful substances. The root of sustainable economic management is increased eco-efficiency, in which the increase in material efficiency takes on greater importance and is decisive for waste management.

In this connection, material flow management allows for goal-oriented control over the use of materials. However, good material flow management requires familiarity with the relevant material flows in order to intervene in the system at the appropriate points.
 
Waste prevention and recovery strategy

Under the direction of the Federal Environment Agency and drawing upon input from key interest groups and experts, an independent Prevention and Recovery Strategy was developed for the Federal Waste Management Plan of 2006 and the planning period 2006 - 2011.

The decisive measures and decisions needed to set the course of action were made in a number of workshops. Several accompanying studies rounded out the picture. The present strategy shows that it would be possible to establish nationwide measures based on a broad consensus that would appear to be realistic given the overall waste management situation and reasonable in terms of the effects to be achieved.

One basic objective of the intended measures for prevention and recovery is to achieve a further separation between the growth in volumes of waste generated and general economic growth. Another objective is to further reduce the quantities of waste destined for landfills. In addition, the storage quality characteristics of landfilled waste should be further improved by preventing and eliminating harmful substances.
 
Waste disposal

The complete implementation of the Landfill Ordinance starting from 2004 (ban on depositing waste with high organic components) and the concomitant pre-treatment in appropriate thermal, biological and physico-chemical plants – for which many plants were built or expanded in recent years – constitutes a decisive step towards achieving the basic objectives of the Waste Management Act and thus sustainable waste management. It is also an important contribution towards reaching the Austrian climate objectives.
 
A basic objective of the Austrian waste management policy is to secure extensive self-sufficiency of the disposal system. In particular, for the treatment of waste with high organic components from households, trade and industry, a small number of additional plants is therefore required in order to have sufficient capacities before the expiration of the transitional periods allowed for the enforcement of the Landfill Ordinance from 2009.

10.10.2006, Lebensministerium VI/3