Vienna: world’s most liveable city also a model for waste disposal

A city can only remain liveable provided it is capable of disposing of its waste ecologically, and not only control public sanitation, but also enforce it by means of sanctions.

This was the general tenor of the three-day 9th International Conference on Waste Management held in Vienna in 2009. The congress was attended by over 340 delegates from 25 different countries. The speakers also came from all parts of the world, from China and Europe to New York. Even Atilio Savino, President of ISWA, the International Solid Waste Association, travelled to Vienna from Argentina. At the beginning of 2009, ISWA relocated its international headquarters from Copenhagen to Vienna for ten years. Vienna has since acted as an international hub for discussion and contacts in questions relating to waste management. The 9th world congress in Vienna dealt with urgent themes: Value and Recovery - from Waste to Resource. Clean Cities – Penalties and Monitoring. Biowaste in a Major City.

Vienna both a hub and a model

In her opening speech, Vienna’s Executive City Councillor for the Environment Ulli Sima addressed key aspects of modern, ecological waste disposal management, and mentioned several of the city administration’s innovative projects in this field. The 9th ISWA congress in Vienna offered the perfect opportunity for a world-wide exchange of views, she explained. Communities often grapple with the same problems, looking for common solutions, and increasingly able to learn from one another, particularly in economically difficult times like the present.

International waste management is subject to permanent change. “Whereas waste once used to be simply dumped on tips, today’s waste management is highly technical and specialized, attempting as far as possible to introduce a closed cycle,” the Executive City Councillor for the Environment explained. Innovative processes and technologies are now making it possible to recover raw materials from waste management cycles with greater thoroughness and efficiency, thus saving resources. For Vienna, a closed cycle means offering a wide range of services, from separate waste collection to bio-waste bins, and composting in a dedicated facility owned by the City of Vienna and the production of peat-free soil for Viennese households. However, fully functional municipal public services are the precondition for such broadly based waste disposal management.

High-level international exchange of views in Vienna

Josef Thon, Head of MA 48, explained that the ISWA congress provided a link between communities, private industry and politics, acting as an international communication and discussion platform on key themes of waste management and urban cleansing.

World-wide comparisons: similar cleanliness strategies in other cities

An international comparison shown at the ISWA congress in Vienna revealed that cities the world over have adopted similar cleanliness strategies. The differences are mainly in the amount of the fines. Generally speaking, however, it is cigarette butts, dog droppings and chewing gum that pose the main problems elsewhere too. Taking Paris as an example: according to Didier Bely, Paris’s waste management chief, the metropolis on the Seine faces problems especially due to carelessly dropped cigarette butts and urinating in public. Didier Bely was particularly taken with Vienna’s popular dog stickers in the parks and gardens, and intended to test the feasibility of this idea for Paris, which is also suffering from dog droppings.




Environmental offenders in Dublin are particularly heavily fined. As a result, the Irish capital with some 500,000 inhabitants has earned itself the reputation of a European Singapore. For instance, in Dublin you have to pay at least 150 euros for anything which you carelessly toss on the ground. It matters not if this is chewing gum, cigarette butts, or anything else, explained waste management expert Bernie Lilli. Dublin is taking violations of public cleanliness very seriously. The reason for this is also to be found in the city’s 5.6 million tourists every year. The maximum penalty in Dublin is a hefty 7,500 euros, and charges were made in 80 cases last year.
 
Our last example is Frankfurt, where fines – though moderate compared to Dublin – are still not cheap. In the city of the book fair it will cost you 25 euros to throw away a cigarette butt, 35 euros for chewing gum dropped in the street, and 75 euros for “pooch poop”. Eight years ago, the metropolis on the River Main set up a separate “Clean Frankfurt” department as its head, Peter Postleb, reported. The department has an annual budget of 1.5 million euros. Frankfurt employs a mixture of an urban police force, cleaning staff and private security services. Cleaning staff are recruited mainly from trained Hartz IV social welfare recipients. A special section of the police force has been set up to deal with graffiti. Frankfurt has also had a positive experience with volunteers who assist as park wardens, according to Postleb.
 



The basic tenor of the various city reports was that local residents had a positive attitude towards fines and patrols combined with active PR measures. In economic terms, many speakers expressed the concern that the ongoing world-wide financial crisis might contribute to the continued collapse of markets for recyclable secondary raw materials. This would make it even harder for communities with dwindling revenues to maintain ecological waste disposal services and recycling.