Page 62 - Waste-to-Energy in the Danube Strategy Region. Challenges and Prospects

In February 1994, the Lower Austrian Provincial Diet decided to employ thermal waste

utilization as part of its waste management system. As a result, 558 of 573 communities in Lower
Austria started to work together to form 22 waste associations, which together established the

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associated company for waste management and environmental protection BAWU in 1996.
Around the same time, the initial plans for building Zwentendorf were made. In June 1994, the

company EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ (co-owned by the Lower Austria government and company

EVN [50% each]) was founded to begin work on the project. After 7 years of technical planning,
siting and environmental impact assessment, approval for construction was granted in 2001 and

two years later in 2003 the Zwentendorf plant began operations (Alfons 2018).

As is evident, in deciding about its waste management practices Austria built upon its
neighbours’ earlier experience. Moreover, laws were introduced slowly in order to avoid resistance

among people and industries. The foundations for the legal framework for the construction of

WtE plants had already been established with landfill bans and other rules. Austria has thus been

generally successful in implementing WtE, though current and future challenges are to prevent
WtE overcapacities while focusing on greater rates of recycling and waste prevention.

12 NÖ Beteiligungsgesellschaft für Abfallwirtschaft und Umweltschutz Ges.m.b.H.
Project co-funded by the European Union
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