Image: HERMANN WAKOLBIGER
The excavators have already arrived: the building materials and processing company Bernegger will set up a sorting plant for plastic waste and light metal in Enns next week. Today, Friday, the ground-breaking ceremony for the project, which had already been presented to the public last year, took place in the presence of Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler, Governor Thomas Stelzer and State Councilor for the Environment Stefan Kaineder.
The plans are ambitious, and the project, in which around 60 million euros are being invested, is scheduled to go into operation at the beginning of 2024. The sorting facility will have an annual capacity of 100,000 tons, making it three times larger than the largest of the 13 sorting facilities in Austria. The rubbish, for example from the yellow sack or the yellow bin, is delivered and processed in Enns for recycling. Bernegger will set up and operate the plant together with Altstoff Recycling Austria (ARA) and Grüner Punkt, a German plastics collector. A joint venture was set up for this purpose, in which everyone has a one-third stake. In the future, Bernegger also wants to recycle on site.
ARA board member Martin Prieler spoke of the “most modern plastic sorting plant in Europe”. This is enormously important for the European circular economy: 300,000 tons of plastic are put on the market in Austria every year, but only 25 percent of them are recycled. From 2025, the EU requires a recycling rate of 50 percent: in 2030 it should be 55 percent: “The recycling rates have to double,” says Prieler. The new sorting system should also contribute to this: the current sorting infrastructure in Austria enables a sorting depth of 58 percent, the new system should achieve 80 percent.
The system will be highly technical, and artificial intelligence and machine learning will also be used there. 40 new employees will work there: modern near-infrared sensors are used, for example, which can be used to sort things even better. More than 20 valuable materials are recovered. In order for the time-consuming process to be worthwhile, the system should be used to capacity from day one. That’s why the Green Dot from Germany is also involved: “Volumes from Germany will also come to Enns,” said Kurt Bernegger jun. by the management of Bernegger GmbH. There was no information on how many exactly there will be. The location is ideal due to its own rail connection and the waterway in the immediate vicinity.
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