Recycling in Austria & the Garbage Police

One of the more surprising statistics related to Austria is that they are the leading recycler in the European Union with an approximate amount of 60% of waste products being recycled. In contrast, only 10% of Greece’s total waste is being recycled while the remaining 90% goes to landfills. On this side of the pond, the United States recycles about 32% of its total waste.

One of the most complicated parts of living in Austria is trying to understand the recycling system. With all the rules and loopholes, it gets ludicrous, and I have to discovered that most Americans take the whole shebang much more serious than most Austrians do.

To scare both the local and the foreigner, there is really a governmental group that is supposed to monitor the trash system. In other words, to put it bluntly they have a “garbage police.”

To avoid getting caught by the garbage police, one must sort your trash into the following categories

1. Bio, short in my mind for biodegradable: this is for basically anything you can compost. No meat products or bones in this one.
2. Paper
3. Plastic
4. Dark glass
5. Light glass
6. Metal
7. Pfand products – this is any recyclable bottle which must be taken back to the store for a refund. Many beer, soda, and water bottles have Pfands. For example, if you buy a bottle of beer, at the check out register, they charge you an extra 30 cents for the bottle. After you are finished drinking the beer, you can bring the bottle back and insert it into a special machine which will print you a receipt for 30 cents. When checking out, you can present the receipt and receive your credit.
8. Restmull: As it sounds, this is for everything else
9. Problem Trash. This is for batteries and ink cartridges that must be handled separately.
10. Electric. This is for old toasters, lawn mowers and the sort.
11. Sparemull. This is a once a year pickup, mainly for large materials and other junk one wants to get rid of.

To try to manage all of these pieces of the pie, we have three trash bins on the floor of our tiny kitchen. The bio bin is on the counter. The rest of the trash containers are in the basement. The headache is often in the cleanup. In America, you just throw it all away, or most of it. In Austria, it is much different. For example, one might buy a small pack of yogurt. The paper on the outside goes in paper, the plastic contained must be rinsed and put in plastic, and the cover, which is in aluminum, must go in metal. Now imagine making a four course meal….

Our friends were not following the system so carefully and they received a letter in the mail from the Garbage Police: Shape up or be fined! The locals tell us stories of people who have been fined for being lax in their recycling; apparently, it isn’t that uncommon.

Even in the Vienna airport or in the bigger cities, they will have multi-container trash bins to encourage separation with ease.

In the end, the results are pretty phenomenal, as 60% gets recycled, but every good thing comes with a price, in this case, it’s the GARBAGE POLICE!

Beware, don’t put your restmull in the plastic bin!