Plastics in Austria: an analysis of developments over the past 15 years | Kunststoffe in Österreich – Eine Analyse der Entwicklungen in den letzten 15 Jahren

The objective of the present study is to provide both a quantitative (mass flows) and qualitative (types of polymers and additives) description of plastic stocks in Austria with the help of material flow analysis. As a first step, a material flow model of the plastic stocks in Austria for the year 2010 was created. A comparison with previous studies for the years 1994 and 2004 reveals that the levels of primary production, processing into semi-finished products, and use of plastics in ten selected sectors have largely remained stable over the past 20 years. Today packaging (30 %), construction and infrastructure (18 %), and non-plastic applications (20 %) like polymer-based paints and coatings continue to be among the most important application sectors.Major growth in stocks could above all be seen in the construction sector, followed by other applications (recreational/sporting goods, office materials), the furniture sector, and the transport and electronics sector. Given the comparatively long service lives of construction products, however, they only produced/became waste much later and as such did not influence the figures for 2010, where short-lived packaging represent the greatest mass flow. Due to the larger volumes in use and the similarly brief service lives of their products, rises in the level of waste can be seen in the agriculture and medicine sectors between 1994 and 2004. The 2004 ban on dumping organic waste in landfills had a major impact on the recycling of plastic waste.Whereas 80 % of plastic waste went straight to the trash in 1994, today only ca. 2 % of all plastic waste in the form of post-MBT residual substances still finds its way to landfills. Further, 18 % is either directly recycled or used in the steelmaking industry, with the remaining 80 % being thermally recycled. A quantitative breakdown of the plastic stocks in 2010 clearly shows that the available data on plastic input flows in the various sectors (production data) are sorely insufficient. Further, the plastic stocks in the respective sectors can only be estimated with a great deal of uncertainty. Given the importance of information on these stocks and their dynamics with regard to predicting the quantity and quality of future waste flows, the logical next step will consist in developing dynamic models and corresponding prognoses.