Recy & DepoTech - The Meeting Place for all Recyclers and Waste Management Professionals

Welcome to the Online Conference on Recycling and Landfill Technology

„Recy und DepoTech“ in Leoben is all about recycling and landfill technology. The conference took place once again last year in 2020 from November 18 through 20 and we, Sophia Chrenko and Tamara Kornfeind, were right there. Last year, however, the conference was held a little differently. So rather than turn up on-site in Leoben, we all met, communicated and discussed ONLINE. In this article, we want to tell you how it all went and the interesting topics we took away with us as food for thought.

Once you logged in as a virtual conference guest, you entered a large virtual exhibition hall, the center of the event. From this point, you got to navigate through other rooms and areas where lectures and live discussions covering a range of topics took place. The presentations were wide-ranging and dealt, for example, with e-mobility, sensor technology in recycling plants and “Future Waste”. A mouse click takes you from the exhibition hall to the Poster Lounge. It contains all the posters on display, along with a short video bio of the authors. You could even visit the conference exhibitors at their virtual booths and connect with them directly via chat. The immediate conclusion that leaped out at both of us, who were first-time virtual conference guests, was: “Super-organized!”

The first day of the conference ended with a keynote speech from Konrad Paul Liessman. The words in his talk were pointed directly at society and our actions in these times of “change” and crises. He touched on aspects of the climate crisis and waste crisis as well as the corona crisis. Pensive, yet also stimulated by new insights from this fascinating and at the same time very critical lecture, we said goodbye—virtually—to the first day of this year’s DepoTech.

The outcome of the Leoben Waste disputation on the topic “CORONA vs. waste management—crisis or success story?” was that there are neither winners nor losers. Waste management has coped well with the crisis and has been able to respond to the changes. Moreover, the reputation and public appreciation of the waste management industry and its employees has been extremely positive. However, this has also given rise to new challenges that will have to be come to terms within the future.

We enjoyed several presentations during the following two days of the conference focusing on recycling and landfill technology.

We have briefly summarized the presentations that we found most interesting with the headline facts and figures:

Plastics in the Environment

This issue was dominated by two hot topics during the conference—environmental pollution caused by fireworks and certification of compostable polymers.

Up to € 137 million are invested in fireworks every year in Germany. These not only cause air and noise pollution, but also result in soil and water contamination. The mark of a “successful” New Year’s Eve is the cardboard, wood and polymers left behind. However, the user does not feel responsible for these firework remnants and carelessly abandons them by littering the environment. Recent research in this area has begun to uncover how considerable the quantities involved are. People rarely think about the consequences for the ecosystem.

The second topic examined the EN 13432 certification of compostable polymers and packaging more detailed during the meeting. To gain this certification, the plastic must have decomposed by 90 % in a maximum of 12 weeks under given conditions. It also took a look at compostable coffee capsules which are present in Austrian retail and have been certified according to EN 13432. These capsules were subjected to composting for 13 weeks. It was noted that the wall thickness of the capsule shells is clearly too thick to degrade sufficiently during this time. Furthermore, a survey of waste management associations found that, in general, average composting time is 6-8 weeks. This explains why compostable plastics are partly seen as “interfering materials” and have to be directly screened out in advance, or manually sorted, at great expense.

Repairing is the trend

Do you know about repair cafés?

When a toaster breaks at home, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to go to the trash. A repair café gives you the opportunity to repair broken everyday items such as electrical appliances, bicycles, toys, textiles and more yourself, but under expert guidance.

This takes pressure off the waste management system and promotes the idea of a circular economy—in other words, extending the product life cycle by repairing it!

The RepaNet association coordinates the Austrian repair scene network and supports and promotes its development. RepaNet’s goal is to create awareness in society to be more mindful of our resources. RepaNet’s surveys reveal that 55,000 repair attempts were made in Austria in 2019, of which an impressive 70 % were successful! This equates to a saving of 218 tons of waste. At the same time, this represents an emission saving of 907 tons of CO2. You can find a suitable repair shop in Austria in Vienna’s “Repair Network”, “Graz Repairs” and in the “Repair Guide Austria”.

Links to websites: 

• Repair Guide Österreich https://www.reparaturfuehrer.at 

• Repair Network (Vienna): https://www.reparaturnetzwerk.at/ 

• Graz repairs: https://grazrepariert.at/ 

• Repair-Initiative (Germany): https://www.reparatur-initiativen.de/ 

Energy Supply 2050 

The direction of future energy supply has significant implications for future waste generation. Waste management is facing major challenges for this reason in particular. Energy supply is increasingly generated by renewable energy sources such as wind power and photovoltaics. However, the increasing expansion of these plants also means that larger quantities of specialized waste will be produced in the future (at the end of these plants’ useful lives). Recycling technologies are not yet sufficiently developed to cater for this.

In this context, it was also interesting to see the projected amount of waste that will be generated by photovoltaics and wind power in the future:

The amount of waste generated by PV systems in 2017 is estimated at 240 tons, according to the Federal Environment Agency. Bearing in mind the useful life of new PV systems and planned expansion until 2050, the amount of waste generated in 2074 is projected at around 106,000 tons.

It is predicted that the largest proportion of new wind turbines will be built in 2043. Assuming a useful life of 25 years, this indicates that a total waste volume of 918,000 tons can be expected in 2068. The waste management industry will also have to cope with enormous variations in the amount of waste generated by wind turbines.

We left the online conference at the end of the second day, armed with a wealth of new knowledge. We took away with us many interesting details and perspectives from the individual events, which were perfectly presented in their virtual format. All in all, our first virtual event exceeded pretty much all our expectations and we were able to gain many positive aspects from the experience.

We are already looking forward to visiting DepoTech again in two years. Will it be virtual again or a more conventional format? Either way is good!