Annual Report 2023/2024 Report Archive

Management of impacts, risks and opportunities

E5-1 Concepts related to resource use and circular economy

The Energie AG Group focuses on protecting the environment to the greatest possible extent, using existing resources sparingly and employing environmentally friendly technologies. Correct handling of waste and hazardous substances is of particular importance in the waste management sector.

Through its waste management services and other services, Umwelt Service GmbH performs many activities within the circular economy, including the production of quality compost, the degassing and dismantling of refrigeration units, the mechanical processing of mixed waste to obtain recyclable fractions and the generation of electricity and heat from the incineration of non-recyclable waste.

A comprehensive strategy for resource use and circular economy, in particular for the Waste Management Segment, will be developed in the following fiscal years.

The following diagram illustrates the transition from a linear economy to a circular economy. A large quantity of waste is already being recycled or reused. Ultimately, at the end of a product’s useful life, the only option still is landfill or incineration.

Activities and services of Umwelt Service GmbH (organigram)

E5-2 – Actions and resources related to resource use and circular economy

Location and recovery partner network in Austria

Umwelt Service GmbH is a certified quality provider and contributes significantly to the security of waste management in Austria. The company provides regional waste management services primarily for its commercial, industrial, municipal and private customers throughout Austria. This security is maintained by the company’s 24 own waste management locations and a large number of recycling partners. The 24 locations are spread across Austria. The recycling partners are primarily national, but some are also international. In addition, long-term contracts have been concluded with customers, e.g. the “Upper Austrian waste solution”. These actions increase reliability, safety and satisfaction.

Company-specific performance indicator

Total waste volume

 

 

2023/2024
t

 

2022/2023
t

By waste type

 

 

 

 

Non-recyclable waste

 

1,193,367

 

1,172,791

Paper

 

190,641

 

197,738

Plastics & packaging

 

33,706

 

37,619

Glass

 

43,460

 

45,771

Organic waste

 

50,793

 

52,520

Metals

 

20,838

 

22,692

By hazardous substance

 

 

 

 

Hazardous waste

 

109,295

 

94,233

Non-hazardous waste

 

1,423,509

 

1,434,897

By waste management method 1)

 

 

 

 

Recycling

 

513,142

 

524,061

Waste incineration

 

 

 

 

High-caloric

 

42,828

 

46,974

Medium-caloric

 

922,283

 

914,481

Low-caloric

 

 

Landfill

 

54,551

 

43,614

1)

The waste management method relates to the prevalent waste management method after waste generation. The total waste volume for the Waste Management Segment includes the volumes from Energie AG Südtirol Umwelt Service GmbH.

 


Note 1: So-called non-recyclable waste is generated in private households. The first treatment stage takes place at the waste incineration plant. The incineration produces residual substances that are then processed in additional steps. The subsequent processing steps are disregarded as the waste volumes are significantly smaller than the originally produced non-recyclable waste.

Note 2: Batches of separately collected packaging materials (such as paper, glass, plastic) always contain wrongly discarded packaging materials. A sorting machine separates these misplaced materials from the recyclable materials. The by far biggest portion of the waste materials can be recycled. As a result, the collected paper, plastic and packaging materials as well as glass items come under the recycling category in terms of their disposal method.

Note 3: The increased use of the landfill disposal method is due to the higher acceptance of construction site waste (e.g. excavated soil). This increase also affected the volume of non-recyclable waste and non-hazardous waste.

Resource conservation through mobile slag processing

At the Wels site, Umwelt Service GmbH also processes the slag that remains after incineration. This is an inert, non-reactive, rock-like material that needs to be disposed of in landfill. At the Wels site, Umwelt Service GmbH also processes the slag that remains after incineration. This is an inert, non-reactive, rock-like material that needs to be disposed of in landfill. In a multi-stage mechanical separation process, iron and non-iron content remaining in the slag after incineration is removed. After incineration, around 250 kg of slag remains from one tonne of waste at the Wels waste incineration plant, along with other residual materials. Although the slag is passed through a metal separator before being sent to the landfill, around 2.9% of iron and 2.5% of non-iron metals are still present in the slag. There are clear advantages to this type of processing: firstly, these raw materials (aluminium, copper, brass and stainless steels) can be separated, recycled and reintroduced into the metal processing cycle, and secondly, there is additional potential for reducing CO2 emissions compared to extracting these raw materials from scratch. In addition, the recycling of the metals reduces the annual landfill volume in Wels. This can help to avoid having to switch to other landfill sites and therefore effectively reduce longer lorry journeys and fuel consumption.

Sustainable plastics processing

Plastic windows have been recycled at the Ötztal site since the beginning of 2021. This means that scrap iron, metals and PVC can be separated by type and then returned to the industrial cycle in an environmentally friendly way. Processing at the Ötztal site has allowed 295,080 kg of plastic windows, doors and roller shutters as well as sections of profiles to be passed on for material processing in the 2023 calendar year. This resulted in a saving of 468,882 kg CO2e in total in 2023.

Reduction in paper consumption

The office buildings in particular need an input of resources in the form of electricity, heating energy, paper and water. In the 2023/2024 fiscal year, the Energie AG Group in Austria (excluding the Waste Management Segment) consumed 26 tonnes of paper for printing and copying (previous year: 31 tonnes). This corresponds to a reduction by 16.7%. As part of a digitalisation drive, more and more processes are being digitalised in order to effect further paper savings. The Energie AG Group’s sites in Austria mainly use paper that is FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) certified. The process to reduce physical mail started in fiscal year 2017/2018 is continuing. After switching to the digital inbox for correspondence from government authorities and automatic forwarding to the respective organisational units with the help of robotics technology, the future focus will increasingly shift to reducing the number of outgoing paper-based mail items. Ongoing digitalisation and the storage space optimisation project initiated in the 2021/2022 fiscal year have made it easier to save and reuse office materials. In the course of this project, the reuse of old folders will continue. Used folders will almost completely meet demand in the years ahead in the interests of a circular economy.

Recycling plant for refrigeration units

Since 2003, together with a partner, Umwelt Service GmbH has been operating one of two stationary processing and recycling plants for disused refrigeration units in Austria at the site in Timelkam. Nationwide, around 300,000 refrigeration units are recycled annually (120,000 of which in Timelkam) and the valuable materials extracted therefrom resupplied to the production cycle. In the procedure used, the refrigerant which contains CFCs and is harmful to the environment is first removed in two stages and then the four main components for recycling extracted. These are later used as raw materials, e.g. in the plastics industry and steel industry, or completely repurposed as separate components. Another component of refrigeration units is used as spill treating material for fire brigades, at workshops and petrol stations or for the production of adhesives in the timber industry. In total, over 94% of the components of a refrigeration unit are supplied to the recovery and recycling process. Moreover, in the reporting period, an internal PV plant was put into operation at this company site (see in detail E1 Climate change , E1-3 – Actions and resources in relation to climate concepts).