Re-Use Austria
The draft of the Austrian raw materials strategy has blind spots, relevant stakeholders have not been adequately involved in its creation so far. RepaNet calls for a raw material hierarchy to be anchored in order to bundle relevant ecological and social goals.
The development of a new, integrated Austrian raw materials strategy announced in the Ministerial Council lecture in May 2019 left a lot to be desired. Despite the announcement, civil society has not yet been involved, and numerous interest groups also see a great need for improvement at the content level - including RepaNet.
A positive aspect of the published base paper is the anchoring of the circular economy as one of the three pillars of the Austrian raw materials strategy. “This already lays an important foundation stone. In this context, however, it is essential that reuse and repair are given priority, because an exclusive focus on recycling, the lowest level of circular economy measures, misses real circular economy goals because it means a loss of product and utility value and waste of raw materials by more and more short-lived ones Cheap products cannot stop ", emphasizes Matthias Neitsch, Managing Director of RepaNet, and he thus uncovered one of the blind spots in the present base paper:" What the raw material strategy has so far completely excluded is the urgently needed reduction in raw material requirements. "
Establishment of a raw material hierarchy
According to Neitsch, this goal should be integrated into a structured, tiered approach to raw material procurement for industry: “What has already established itself in the area of waste policy with the 5-level waste hierarchy must now also be implemented at the beginning of the production chain. As in waste management, this means avoidance at the top of the list - our consumption of resources must finally respect the existing planetary boundaries. A reduction in consumption must be anchored politically, and this goal must also find its way into the Austrian raw materials strategy, and it must be given priority before starting to talk about procurement. "
Ecological and social standards are a must
RepaNet sees the establishment of a "raw material hierarchy" as a solution, which, in addition to the aspects of avoidance and reduction, combines other central aspects in one model. "If you think through the hierarchical approach step by step, it is important to also proceed when covering the raw material requirements in such a way that you primarily use secondary raw materials from recycling, only after they have been exhausted from renewable sources and only in the very last step from non-renewable sources served. We have to proceed in the same way when it comes to the standards of these sources: These have to follow social, human rights and ecological aspects. ”High standards like those in Austria should also be established for all raw material and product imports. Only when this is legally impossible or economically unreasonable can lower international minimum standards be accepted, but even less not - this must be ensured within the framework of consistent supply chain responsibility.
Sustainable strategy instead of just securing needs
“It is a grave neglect and economic backwardness that we have still not put an effective legal stop to human rights violations and environmental damage in connection with the extraction of raw materials in the 21st century. We cannot go on as before - this shows on an ecological as well as social and economic level. Instead of purely pursuing the need to secure demand, Austria must now lay a stable foundation for its future circular raw materials policy with an innovative, future-oriented, and ecologically and socially really sustainable raw materials strategy, ”emphasizes Neitsch.
RepaNet, together with other organizations of the NGO alliance “AG Rohstoffe”, is ready to contribute its circular economy expertise to improve and expand the Austrian raw materials strategy.
Position paper of the NGO alliance "AG Raw Materials"
Excerpt from the base paper for an Austrian raw materials strategy 2030, BMLRT (2020)
To the press release from RepaNet on APA OTS
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