Austria exceeds EU recycling goals: a green success for everyone!

Austria exceeds EU recycling goals: a green success for everyone!

Vienna, Österreich - Austria has once again exceeded its recycling destinations, which the old -fashioned recycling Austria (ARA) announced on May 23, 2025. With an impressive collection of around 1.02 million tons of packaging and waste paper last year, the country fulfilled the requirements of the European Union beyond the recycling aspects. The collections that have increased compared to the previous year are an indication of the constant improvement in recycling culture in Austria. According to the ARA, the sorting system in Enns, which has an annual capacity of 100,000 tons, shows the high efficiency of the Austrian recycling processes.

The EU has issued specific and ambitious requirements for recycling in its Member States. These guidelines include, among other things, that Austria must achieve a recycled rate of 50 percent for plastic by 2025. The recycling rate for paper in Austria is currently 80 percent, above the new EU target of 75 percent, while the quota for plastic is 25 percent and thus also above the EU specification of 22.5 percent. ARA expects to achieve the required quota of 50 percent in plastic this year.

Current collective results

In detail, the current recycling rates can be summarized as follows:

The ARA has already found in a long-term perspective that a recycling rate of 83 percent was achieved in iron metals, aluminum and glass, which is above the EU specifications for 2030. Nevertheless, declines in glass and paper are recorded, while a positive turn in the collection of light and metal packaging can be observed.

new regulations and challenges

In order to meet the recycling claims, a joint collection of plastic and metal packaging in the yellow ton or in the yellow sack will be introduced from January 1, 2025 in Austria. Plastic beverage bottles and beverage cans that are affected by the new deposit system are excluded. This measure could further increase the amount of collecting, as in Vienna, Lower Austria, Carinthia and Salzburg, where a change to the joint collection in 2023 has already increased an average of 21 percent.

Nevertheless, there are challenges in the commercial collection: Since the beginning of 2023, businesses have been obliged to collect packaging waste separately, but only a third of the 100,000 tons of plastic packaging are handed over separately. In order to support the progress, ARA also has a new sorting system and a polyolefin preparation system, which will be able to process 20,000 tons of sorting residues made of plastic annually.

The requirements that ARA takes into account in its planning include a minimum use of recyclates in plastic packaging, which will increase to 10 to 35 percent by 2030 and is to be increased to 25 to 65 percent by 2040. This development is part of the more comprehensive goals of the EU, sustainable practices and resource efficiency by the European Green Deal.

Responsibility for compliance with the recycling standards is not only among the citizens, but also with the companies. The European Court of Auditors has criticized the practice of the plausibility test of the reported recycled rates, which underlines the need for transparent and responsible waste management. This is the only way to achieve the ambitious goals of the EU in the long term and make a decisive contribution to the circular economy, as is specified in the EU guidelines.

ARA has already moderately adjusted the fees to make the change easier. Information offers such as the Digi-Cycle app, which is updated in multilingual language, should support consumers worldwide and promote the efficiency of waste separation.

Overall, it can be seen that Austria is on a promising path to not only reach its recycling goals, but also to surpass. Further information provides vienna.at , while the comprehensive progress of the ARA under ara.at . The context of the EU-wide recycling destinations can also be found on the page Data.europa.eu