8,000 tons of garbage on highways in 2021
TRAFFIC
After falling by ten percent in the first year of the pandemic, 2020, the amount of waste on Austria’s motorways rose again last year to an integrated 8,000 tons despite a further reduction in traffic. And the trend is clearly pointing upwards.
An initial interim balance before the travel summer shows an increase of around five percent today, ASFINAG reported in a broadcast.
Every year, thousands of tons of rubbish accumulate at the 55 ASFINAG rest areas and 87 rest stops, as well as along the motorways and expressways. In 2021 it was around 7,900 tons, a slight increase of 100 tons. The amount of more garbage is the smaller problem. “We are concerned about the ever-increasing volume of carelessly thrown away waste,” said ASFINAG environmental expert Heimo Berghold.
“Unnecessary, dangerous work assignments”
Responsible for this are in particular the PET beverage bottles and snack packaging, which are often creatively thrown on the ground or even out of the moving car at rest areas and parking lots – sometimes right next to the garbage containers provided for this purpose. The latter is an additional significant risk for traffic safety because objects that are thrown up can easily become projectiles. In addition, illegal deposits of household waste or building rubble occur again and again. In some cases, whole furniture or car tires end up next to the routes, for example to save on the garbage disposal fee.
The illegal disposal of waste means tedious work for the employees of ASFINAG. Then about a quarter of the total amount of waste has to be collected by hand. “This caused unnecessary, dangerous work assignments next to the route and of course also costs,” says ASFINAG.
ASFINAG has been trying to set initiatives on the subject of littering for several years. Most recently, this was pointed out on all overhead advertisements with the slogan “I’m a Autobahn, not a garbage can”. In order to reduce the problem of disposable bottles, all rest areas have been equipped with specially marked drinking water fountains, where you can fill up your own glass drinking bottle or are encouraged to at least reuse an existing plastic bottle.