The “Tiroler Krone” has rummaged in the garbage and at the post office to find out whether the price increase has an impact on the amount of organic waste and parcels. With some surprising results.
Watching your wallet more has been the motto since the beginning of the inflation wave. Can you see the frugality with organic waste and parcel shipping? In other words: Are the amounts of organic waste and goods ordered on the Internet noticeably declining? “In our view, there can be no connection between the surge in prices and organic waste,” says Johannes Wildner, the environmental and waste consultant for the Innsbruck municipal services. On the contrary: “If you compare the amounts from January 2022 (765.5 tons) with January 2023 (796.7 tons), you come to the conclusion that in 2023 even 31.2 tons more organic waste was collected.” Months October to December in the two years shows that more organic waste was collected. While it was 2475.32 tons in the fourth quarter of 2021, this number rose to 2540.6 tons in the fourth quarter of 2022. “No big reduction” in Pfaffenhofen and Kufstein “Unfortunately too much organic waste still ends up in the residual waste and vice versa, why it’s difficult to draw the right conclusions,” concludes Wildner, who uses the opportunity to call for the people of Innsbruck to “separate cleanly”. In Pfaffenhofen, however, according to the managing directors of the Höpperger company, Harald and Thomas Höpperger, “there is currently no noticeable change in the amount of organic waste”. And how does it look in the lowlands in the fortress town of Kufstein? “Reduction of the amount of waste due to the price wave cannot confirm the figures with only a small deviation,” says waste consultant Manfred Zöttl. While around 316.5 tons of organic waste were counted in the months from October to December 2021, it was not significantly less in the same months last year at around 308 tons million parcels delivered – that was almost 63,000 parcels per day”. In the previous year it was significantly more with 16.7 million (67,000 parcels per day). “Of course we see certain fluctuations. Especially in the first phase of the pandemic, many people placed more orders,” says press spokesman Markus Leitgeb. Despite the increased number in the previous year, “we are already assuming that price increases and inflation are already playing a role in ordering behavior”. “We are currently very satisfied with the demand from our Austrian customers,” it says. Zalando also says that “we cannot provide any specific information for Austria or Tyrol”. However, the press office concedes that “some of our customers are more reserved and price-conscious when it comes to fashion and lifestyle products”.
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