Waste - State & Impacts

What are the state and impacts?

In the nine years from 1999 to 2008, total waste arisings increased from 48.6 million tonnes to 56.3 million tonnes (+16%) (see Figure 1). Part of the increase can be explained by the higher generation of secondary waste due to increased waste treatment activities. Therefore, 2 million tonnes of the waste generated in 2008 can be allocated to secondary waste. The arisings of excavated soils - by far the biggest waste fraction - increased from 20 to 25.6 million tonnes.

Figure 1: Total waste arisings in Austria (Lebensministerium 2001 and 2006, Umweltbundesamt 2009b)

From 1999 to 2008, the arisings of waste from households and similar establishments increased from 3.1 million tonnes in 1999 to 3.8 million tonnes in 2008 (+22%). However, due to an increase in the separate collection of waste, residual household waste arisings increased only by 5% (see Figure 2):

Figure 2: Generation of waste from households and similar establishments in Austria (Umweltbundesamt 2009b)

With the treatment of household waste, a substantial shift from landfilling to thermal treatment took place (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: First treatment step of waste from households and similar establishments 1999-2004 (Umweltbundesamt 2009b)

Links & References

Infobox

Contact

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