A contract between ÖBB Rail Cargo Group and FCC Austria has been estimated that it will achieve an annual saving of 400 tonnes of CO2.

ÖBB Rail Cargo Group (RCG) has been working with waste management company FCC Austria Abfall Service AG for 20 years to combine the sustainable management of waste with efficient end-to-end logistics. FCC Austria won the current tender for waste transport because of its use of sustainable rail.

Every year, Rail Cargo Group transports tens of thousands of tonnes of waste for FCC Austria, such as the 19,000 tonnes of waste that is transported from the Tirol West Waste Association in Roppen to Zistersdorf in Lower Austria.

The waste travels 6 km from Roppen to Ötztal/Imst railway station in Tyrol in a Rail Cargo Group MOBILER truck.

At the station, the waste is transferred to rail for its journey to Zistersdorf in Lower Austria where another MOBILER truck unloads the waste at the Zistersdorf recycling plant.

Other initiatives by ÖBB Rail Cargo Group to save CO2 emissions include establishing new cargo routes across Europe and supplying 600 rail-road container wagons to Swiss wagon hire company MFD Rail.

The multimodal solution includes the main leg on sustainable rail in single wagonload transport and the first and last mile using innovative MOBILER logistics as well as the provision of the required equipment.

This includes specially manufactured 30-foot MOBILER bulk containers, which have been further developed together with FCC in order to increase the payload and thus transport municipal waste even more efficiently,” says In single wagonload transport, four of these containers are transported per eight-axle carrier wagon.

Christopher Prax-Huber, Segment Manager Environmental Solutions at RCG.

A partnership that sets standards

The basis for the 20-year joint logistics journey is the trusting and solution-oriented cooperation between FCC Austria and RCG.

RCG is an important partner for us because these modern container systems allow us to transport large quantities of waste efficiently and in a climate-friendly manner. The handling takes place directly at our site with the MOBILER truck.

Günter Hickl, Operations Manager of FCC Zistersdorf Abfall Service GmbH

Finding solutions together, improving each other and ultimately benefiting as partners – that is the goal.

The motivation was to transport waste over a long distance. We started talking to the RCG about it. Since then, we have been transporting considerable quantities by rail to our thermal recycling plant. That’s around 70,000 tonnes per year.

Georg Kraxner, authorised signatory of FCC Austria Abfall Service AG

What’s more, thermal recycling generates additional energy. In Zistersdorf, we thermally recycle the waste and ultimately generate energy for up to 20,000 households or industries.

Nora Bohrn, Head of Corporate Sustainability at FCC Environment CEE GmbH

Compliance with the Waste Management Act

The amended Waste Management Act states that transport of waste over 200 kilometres must be transported by rail .

RCG will invest 75 million euros in new equipment by 2026. This consists of container wagons and special MOBILER containers. This means that all types of waste will be transported in accordance with the Waste Management Act both now and in the future.

Wolfgang Riedl, Business Unit Manager at RCG