Austria’s ÖBB Rail Cargo Group (RCG) has begun transporting municipal waste between Italy and the Netherlands thanks to a clause in the Waste Management Act.
The amendment states that waste, with a total weight of more than 10 tonnes travelling a minimum distance of 300 kilometres, must be transported by rail, legislation that is also applied internationally.
RCG transports 5,000 tonnes of municipal waste for thermal recycling every year from Serravalle Pistoiese in Italy to Farmsum in the Netherlands, across Austria on almost 1,600 kilometres of rail.
To get the waste containers moving, RCG uses a MOBILER logistics vehicle which enable a multimodal end-to-end solution. The containers are transferred horizontally between trucks and rail cars using a hydraulic lifting device.
Thanks to the multimodal MOBILER unit and the amended Waste Management Act, there are now no limits to the transport of waste, the company said.
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