Austria's Waste Disposal Sector

Austria's waste disposal sector consists of a number of quite diverse sub-sectors. Recently new legislative initiatives (e.g., Packaging Act) added new market segments which contributed to a significant increase in the turnover of this sector. In 1993 the public and private disposal industries reached a turnover volume of at least AS 12 billion. Austrian production statistics do not cover the disposal industry as a separate sector. For this reason, no official data exist on turnover, number of employees, size classes of firms, etc. This study attempts to fill this gap by means of a survey on market participants, market structure, technologies and market volume. The study surveys the individual sub-sectors, their summation in turn yields the market volume of the total sector, which is estimated to have amounted at least to AS 12 billion in 1993 (public and privately owned firms). At least 9,000 people are employed in this sector. This estimate does not include the disposal of demolition waste and of recycling materials. The WIFO survey shows that privately owned disposal firms turn over around AS 8 billion, around two third of total volume. The majority of the private respondents to the survey, nearly 50 percent, has fewer than 10 employees. This percentage is higher than in the manufacturing sector, where only 40 percent of the firms fall in this category. On the other hand, only 4 percent of disposal firms employ more than 100 persons, while in the manufacturing sector 14 percent of the firms are larger than that. The middle categories have similar sizes in both sectors. The disposal of around 1.7 million tons of municipal waste is organized by communities or associations of communities, which depending on the region employ private firms to very different extents (Carinthia 60 percent, Lower Austria more than 90 percent). Market segmentation has grown historically and potential competition from other firms is less than in the booming recycling sector. Significant uncertainties exist with respect to the volume of waste produced by industrial firms. We estimated a volume of around 4 million tons (based on a survey by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry) as being disposed of outside the firm; approximately half of this volume is sold. The disposal of the remaining industrial waste (without recycling materials) probably amounts to the same volume as municipal waste disposal. The recycling of demolition waste in road and railway construction functions quite well and is able to cover its costs. Construction firms have traditionally engaged in this activity. In Austria there exist 62 partly mobile, partly stationary recycling installations for concrete and asphalt. Around 45 firms offer recycling for building demolition materials. But the majority of building demolition waste is still disposed of unsorted in gravel pits or other landfills. Direct disposal is still by far the dominant way to dispose of waste, especially municipal waste. It is estimated that in 1993 around 1.0 to 1.2 million tons of municipal waste were disposed of directly or indirectly (after being treated – either by composting or incineration) in landfill facilities. The number of landfill facilties has fallen from 145 in 1990 to around 90 in 1993. During the past years disposal fees have increased drastically – 25 percent per year for municipal waste, 27 percent per year for industrial waste. The Packaging Act lead to significant changes in this whole sector. Responsibility for disposing of packaging material was handed over to the Austrian Recycling Agency (ARA) and the sectoral recycling firms. As a result of this act a new market segment of around AS 2.5 to 3 billion was created. Information on the generation of hazardous waste in Austria is insufficient. For this reason it is also unclear what percentage is disposed of illegally.