Text briefly summarized
- In 2023, 8,500 tons of garbage were collected on Austria’s motorways, 8% more than in 2022 and at pre-Corona levels.
- Over a quarter of the garbage has to be collected manually, which is dangerous and expensive.
This again increased the Pre-Corona highs Asfinag announced in a press release on Wednesday that the number of vehicles has reached 100,000. The amount of waste that is disposed of properly is the least of the problems for the motorway company. carelessly discarded wastethe so-called “littering”, was emphasized.
“It is not only significantly more expensive, as the garbage on Austria’s motorways has to be collected manually. It is also dangerous – both for the employees who have to do the work on the motorways manually and for other drivers.
Carelessly discarded rubbish, especially bottles and cans, but also newspapers, can become real projectiles if the wind carries them from the rest area onto the road, or they are even thrown out of the open window directly onto the street. In addition, drivers can be frightened and abrupt driving manoeuvres can occur. The risk of accidents is therefore very high,” emphasised Heimo Berghold, waste officer at Asfinag Service Gesellschaft.
A quarter of the garbage is collected manually
More than a quarter of the garbage has to be collected by hand every year. This means that last year more than 2,100 tons of garbage had to be collected by hand. Another big problem is the illegal dumping of household waste or construction rubble. According to Berghold, entire pieces of furniture, car tires and similar items sometimes end up next to the tracks.
Garbage per federal state
The 2023 “garbage hit list” of a total of 8,525 tons on Austria’s motorways by federal state: 2,002 tons were in Lower Austria, 1,397 tons in Upper Austria, 1,374 tons of garbage in Styria, 1,251 tons in Tyrol, 1,103 tons in Carinthia, 625 tons in Salzburg, 430 in Burgenland, 307 tons in Vorarlberg and 36 tons in Vienna.
Agencies
Updated at 14:08
