Representatives of MA 48 convince themselves underground

• Top representatives of MA 48 met their supervision duty and visited underground mine and waste storage Heilbronn

• MA 48 and .A.S.A. cooperatively dispose of residues originating from Viennese waste incineration for 20 years

Vienna / Heilbronn, March 2013. Approximately 1.2 million MWh of heat and 81,000 MWh of electricity are produced by the four Viennese waste incineration plants annually. The flue gases are specially filtered and cleaned. For 20 years the local waste management company .A.S.A. Abfall Service AG has been taking care of the incurring flue gas residues for the Municipal Department MA 48 in Vienna. These have since been safely and retrievably stored in the salt mine Heilbronn (Germany). A delegation led by the Directors of the Viennese MA 48 convinced themselves of the high quality and safety of underground disposal during the visit.

"Responsible management of the residual materials is one of the main pillars of our environmental policy," said Josef Thon, Director of MA 48 on the occasion of the visit in Heilbronn. "We closely cooperate with established partners such as .A.S.A. to ensure maximum safety in waste disposal. .A.S.A. is working to our fullest satisfaction”.

 

Complete isolation from the biosphere

The City of Vienna and .A.S.A. have been working together since 1992: Since then, about 160,000 tons of flue gas cleaning residues (filter cake and fly ashes) of the Viennese incinerators have been deposited retrievably in the underground mines of SWS AG in Heilbronn. “Thus, by increasing scarcity of resources it is possible to use the deposited materials as a source of raw materials and recover contained non-ferrous metals in the future." so Dr. Bertram Laub of .A.S.A.. "Today’s waste is our resource of tomorrow." Laub states further.

Until then, the waste materials are stored with complete and permanent isolation from the biosphere in the salt mine. Due to the absolute dryness and impermeability inside the salt rock, the deposition in the digging chambers of Heilbronn grants highest security.

 

Transportation by rail, complete documentation

The residues are transported environmentally friendly by rail to its interim and final storage. .A.S.A. and SWS AG pay particular attention to the complete documentation of the entire disposal process: origin, transportation, packing, packaging and deposition are accurately recorded and material flows are documented seamlessly through to the exact storage location in the chambers of the mine. Also the fly ashes from the .A.S.A. own incinerator in Zistersdorf are transported by train to SWS AG and deposited there for future exploitation.

.A.S.A. Group based in Himberg near Vienna is the largest waste management company in CEE with more than 4.500 employees. It serves more than 4.7 million inhabitants and disposes of around 4 million tons of waste from commercial and industrial clients annually. In the active salt pit of the Südwestdeutsche Salzwerke AG (SWS AG) about 4 million tons of rock salt is extracted annually. The void volume of the mine is currently around 55 million m3, further 2 million m3 are mined yearly in the salt pit. The digging chambers are connected by a 750 km long underground street and road network.