The mountain of packaging waste keeps growing – salzburg.ORF.at
environment
Almost 100,000 tons of plastic waste are generated in Austria every year – according to the Federal Environment Agency, a good 16 percent of this is packaging in Salzburg. The pandemic with the trend towards delivery services and gastro takeaway further exacerbated the problem.
The pandemic fills Salzburg garbage cans with take-away boxes. An example: at the Salzach field 2021 on nice days when the gastronomy was closed in the lockdown, up to twice as much garbage as usual.
Instead of plastic boxes, only a few restaurateurs like Klaus Loffelberger from the city of Salzburg rely on the slightly more expensive, biodegradable alternative: “Of course there are additional costs. But you have to spend the few cents. It WILL simply be disposed of properly if it WILL be done. And it’s just important to me that the packaging that leaves our house gets back into the right cycle.” But even biodegradable boxes sometimes take years to decompose.
Millions of packages fill bins for waste paper
The waste paper bins are also fuller than before the pandemic because more packages are being sent. With eleven million parcels sent, the Post Office in Salzburg set a new record last year. Internet trade fills the waste paper bins. “The increase in cardboard or packaging paper in the household is a process that has been going on for some time now,” says Josef August, Managing Director of Austria Papier Recycling. “It has certainly been going on for ten years and has received an additional boost from the pandemic.”
When it comes to waste paper, however, the most important thing is the correct separation, because not every box belongs in the waste paper bin: “Coated paper is generally not waste paper that we can recycle,” says Augusta. “Things that do not dissolve in the drum in the ten minutes that are available are not recycled, but are incinerated.” This applies, among other things, to coated take-away food packaging. Such are burned together with plastic boxes.
More packaging waste in the pandemic
Less newsprint
On the other hand, the amount of newspaper in the waste paper containers is falling because more and more people are reading the news on the Internet.