Rubbish in the Alps

Littering - the careless throwing away or leaving behind of waste in public places and in nature - is not only a visual nuisance, it also has serious ecological and economic consequences. The quality of natural habitats is impaired and high cleaning costs are incurred every year to collect at least some of the materials left behind and dispose of them properly.

Raising awareness

Particularly affected are public squares, traffic hubs, the surroundings of take-away restaurants, petrol stations or shopping centres as well as natural recreation areas heavily impacted by leisure activities (e.g. bathing lakes, popular weekend destinations). There is no universal solution to littering. Initiatives such as the deposit for disposable drinks bottles or extended producer responsibility with regard to cleaning costs help to directly reduce discarded drinks and take-away packaging. At the same time, it is important to raise awareness of the problem among the population. Where there is rubbish, more will always be thrown there.

1,000 tonnes of waste collected

The study "Littering in Österreich", carried out by the Federal Environment Agency (“Umweltbundesamt”) on behalf of the Ministry of the Environment, provides the first nationwide overview of this aspect of waste management. In 2018, around 1,000 tonnes of waste were collected in 2,774 field cleaning campaigns organised by the waste management cooperatives together with the provincial governments, local authorities and other organisations/ associations. More than 163,000 volunteers were involved throughout Austria. In recent years, awareness of the problem has increased, at least in parts of the population - more and more people are taking part in the cleaning campaigns throughout Austria.

Clean Alps campaign

The alpine environment must be protected, which is why the Alpenschutzverein (Alpine Protection Association) for Vorarlberg has organised clean-up campaigns in hard-to-reach areas for over 50 years and has already removed many tonnes of rubbish from the mountains.

A film crew from Bayerischer Rundfunk accompanied a group from the “Clean Alps” campaign as they cleared an old rubbish dump in the area around the Voitlhofhütte on the Zwölferhorn.

The Ministry of the Environment is a partner of the Alpenschutzverein for Vorarlberg and supports the "Clean Alps - Clean Waters" campaign.

alpenschutzverein.at (in German only)