Development of a national guideline for planning, implementation and evaluation of waste paper characterisation

The application of a consistent and comparable methodology for waste characterisation is one key element for the evaluation of recycling quotas. The development of valid monitoring instruments is also stated in the European Unions´ Circular Economy Package. Ambitions to standardize sorting analyses exist for more than 15 years. Up to now, analyses of the composition of waste paper have been implemented with different approaches. This refers to e.g. sampling (i.e. extraction of samples from waste collection trucks or collection bins), the determination of sample size and the statistical evaluation of results. Therefore comparability of results of such analyses was limited. Goal of this project is the development of a guideline for planning and implementation of waste composition analyses of waste paper. The implementation is done in cooperation with the national waste management association, the Austrian Association of Cities and Towns and all collection and recycling system operators.