Austrian End-of-Waste ordinance for recycled aggregates from construction & demolitions wastes - concept and experiences after 2 years of application

Construction & demolition waste in Austria the market für recycled aggregates from C&D-waste suffered from: Low prices for natural aggregatesPartly low quality of recycling aggregates due to lack of compulsory quality... [ view full abstract ]

Construction & demolition waste in Austria the market für recycled aggregates from C&D-waste suffered from:

• Low prices for natural aggregates

• Partly low quality of recycling aggregates due to lack of compulsory quality control

• Burden from qualifications as „waste“ (legal burdens but also psychological obstacles)

Therefore it was not only on behalf of the recycling industry but also of he Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management to development end-of-waste criterias - based on legislation – to rise the quality of recycling aggregates and consequently allow the recycling aggregates to become a „product“. 

Over a period of 5 years of developing the austrian ordinance for recycled-aggregates from C&D wastes was put in force on the 1st of january, 2016. The core provisions of the ordinance are:

•      explicit standard for a recycling-oriented process of demolition including compulsory pre-demoliton audits

• documentation system from building-site to product

• standards for labeling of recycling products

• batch-wise quality control system for specific parameters including specific limit values for different ways of recycling

• declaration as „product“ for good quality materials products, recycling as „waste“ still possible for lower Qualities

The ordinance significantly affected the demolition- and recyclingsector, after more than 2 years of application the following outcomes can be identified:

•   better quality of input materials for Recycling
•      legal compliance for recycler and appliers for recycled materials due to    clear Regulation and product-status for high quality materials
• slow implementation of recycling-oriented demolition when cheap landfilling is available
•      arising problems with analysis/demolition/disposal of specific materials (abestos, artrificial Minerals fibers, insulation material)
•      short-term rising of Prices for landfilling
•      missing recycling/collecting structures for gypsum (drywalls) or mineral fibers

The first experiences of the ordinance are therefore satisfiying, there is also an incentive for solving the problems still present.