Leading Austrian packaging collection system Altstoff Recycling Austria (ARA; Vienna; www.ara.at) has reported retrieving more than 1 mn t of packaging and waste paper from domestic households, an amount that corresponds to 116 kg per inhabitant.

ARA said last year’s 3.5% decrease in collection volume versus 2021 was mainly due to the war in Ukraine. The resulting economic complications have fuelled inflation and lowered consumer spending. Nevertheless, ARA noted that Austria is on the right track. “Despite a slight decline, Austrians continue to be very good at collecting packaging,” ARA CEO Harald Hauke said.

Plastic and lightweight packaging accounted for 176,000 t of collections, 2.4% less than in the previous year. While volumes picked up in tourist regions after the previous year’s lockdowns ended, the trend of reducing plastic packaging pressured collection volumes.

The situation was similar for metal, where the collection volume increased slightly by 0.3% to 31,900 t. Glass also benefited from revived tourism and an increased desire to celebrate with a total of 260,000 t, up 2.5% on the year.

The amount of waste paper collected declined. The trend towards digitalisation and digital media is lowering demand for advertising leaflets and newspapers, and collections fell 6.6% to 574,800 t.

On 1 January 2023, Austrian started the uniform recovery of light packaging (see Plasteurope.com of 01.11.2022). ARA thus expects the retrieval of plastic packaging to increase by 20% in 2023. However, this is actually necessary to meet the EU’s reclaim target of 50% by 2025. “We need to double the recycling of plastic packaging in Austria”, Hauke said. “We are currently at the 25% mark. So, we can only succeed if we collect more. Every single plastic packaging must find its way into the yellow bin or the yellow bag.”