Vienna fights with waste separation: where is the recycling?

Vienna fights with waste separation: where is the recycling?

Wien, Österreich - in Vienna there is a dramatic increase in the waste revenue, which presents the city administration and the citizens with great challenges. In 2022, every Viennese produced an average of 260 kilograms of residual waste - that's a whopping 100 kilograms above the Austrian average. These figures illustrate the urgency of waste separation and the enormous potential that is in a better recycling strategy. According to experts, the obstacles to waste separation in the city are numerous. The anonymity of the big city reduces the motivation of the citizens to correctly separate their plastic waste. Only 8 out of 10 bottles collect the way into the yellow bin, which shows that the mere provision of more collective containers does not lead to the desired results, such as the Kurier reported.

In order to counteract this situation, the yellow tons in the city were redesigned and now contain not only plastic, but also beverage cartons as well as packaging made of metal and aluminum. These new regulations contributed to increasing the waste volume in the yellow ton by 20 percent in the first quarter of 2023. The statistical results show that the Viennese take on the new system. A modern sorting system ensures that waste separation works more efficiently. Meinverzirge reported that the increase in the waste volume in the yellow ton is a positive trend and thus the way for an effective Recycling.

challenges and solutions

Nevertheless, there are challenges to cope with. In order to get the garbage problem under control, the MA 48 initiated various advertising campaigns in 17 languages and consistently monitors waste disposal. In 2024, over 12,000 organ penalty can be issued due to illegal garbage deposits. The EU also prescribes a drastic increase in recycling rates. Although the current recycling rate is only 26 percent, it should increase to 90 percent for PET bottles by 2029. The goal of re -exploiting half of all plastic packaging by the end of the year seems ambitious, but necessary for a more sustainable future in Vienna.