Waste – Record-keeping requirements

General information

Certain waste holders are obliged to keep general records of the accruing waste. These records concern, for example, the type, quantity, origin and whereabouts of hazardous and non-hazardous waste. The records must be kept consecutively for each calendar year (specifying the reference period) and separated by the individual types of waste. 

Persons obligated to keep records that are neither waste collectors nor operators of waste treatment facilities are free to keep the records in any form (e.g. as a sorted collection of bills, delivery notes which contain the necessary data). They can fulfil the record-keeping requirement for hazardous waste by collecting and keeping the waybills [Begleitscheine].

Also carriers of hazardous waste can fulfil their obligation to keep records by collecting and keeping the waybills, or in that the transferee communicates the waybill data to the register on edm.gv.at (→ BMK).

The obligation to keep records does not apply to:

• Private households
• Agricultural and forestry enterprises that are not required to keep accounts with regard to
  • the hazardous waste they produce, provided that it is transferred to a waste collector or an operator of waste treatment facilities authorised to take it back
  • the non-hazardous wastes or problematic substances they produce
• Permit-exempt collectors who do not treat the collected waste themselves (i.e. do not merely prepare it for reuse) with regard to the taking back of waste from similar or equivalent products which fulfil the same function. They only have to record the transfers of the waste taken back.
• Carriers with regard to non-hazardous waste where they only transport these wastes on behalf of the waste owner

Enterprises affected

• Waste producers
• Persons taking back waste that do not need a permit
• Waste collectors who, in the framework of their work as a caretaker or facility manager, order the collection or acceptance of their customers' waste legally only
• Waste collectors/waste treatment facility operators (for further information see "Annual waste management sheet – Records")

Deadlines

The records have to be kept separately from the other commercial documents for a period of seven years.

Competent authority

The waste management authority which is locally in charge of the site:

• As the authority in charge of the plant or facilities: The Provincial Governor^{German text}
• For general controls:
  • The district administrative authority^{German text} [Bezirkshauptmannschaft]
  • In statutory cities^{German text}: The municipal administration^{German text} [Magistrat]
    • In Vienna: The municipal administration department MA 22 (→ City of Vienna)^{German text}

Procedure

Upon request, the records have to be submitted to the authority.

Required documents

The records must basically and in particular comprise the following information:

• Type of waste
• Quantity of waste (in kg)
• Origin of the waste (company of the person first producing the waste or type of procedure in the case of waste from internal waste treatment)
• Whereabouts of the waste (indication of the person taking over the waste and date of the take-over or type of procedure in the case of internal waste treatment)

Costs and fees

No tariffs or duties have to be paid.

Further information

Simpler records

As regards municipal waste simpler records (with respect to the indication of the waste quantity) can be taken if it is disposed of via the municipal collection system or its regular transfer is verifiably ensured by a contractual agreement.

Simpler records (with respect to the indication of the waste quantity) are appropriate also for packaging waste, waste electrical and electronic equipment and waste batteries if the producer (of the packaging, electrical and electronic equipment and/or batteries) participates in a collection and recovery system and the above-mentioned wastes are collected via this system.

Legal bases

• sections 17, 24a of the Abfallwirtschaftsgesetz (AWG)
• sections 1 to 7 of the Abfallnachweisverordnung (ANV)