Measures for waste prevention at public events

Draft Act amending the Salzburg Waste Management Act 1998

The proposed amendment to the Salzburg Waste Management Act 1998 [Salzburger Abfallwirtschaftsgesetz – S.AWG], Provincial Law Gazette No 35/1999, pursues a number of objectives:

- implementation of EU law, in particular Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives (Waste Framework Directive), OJ L 312, 22.11.2008,

- updates to the Act to reflect changed circumstances (recycling society rather than waste crisis) and reinforcement of the tools to deal with new challenges, particularly cooperation between municipalities.

In many cases, the proposed statutory measures serve several objectives simultaneously; they are accordingly cited in several places. For purposes of waste prevention, the following provisions are adopted with respect to public events:

The recycling obligation at public events (§ 7(1)) is an important measure for waste prevention. It stipulates that at public events with more than 300 (or 600 in some cases) participants, foods and beverages may essentially only be provided in reusable packaging. The mandatory preparation of a waste management approach in advance of large public events (§ 7(5)) is also a suitable tool, since planning the necessary infrastructure reduces the waste quantity produced and raises recycling levels. The aim is to recycle as much waste as possible, thereby also implementing the new EU waste hierarchy.