Inside Zero Waste Austria’s work

Austria throws away around one million tonnes of edible food every year. The average EU citizen generates roughly 190 kg of packaging waste annually. And somewhere between the landfill and the legislature, a largely volunteer-run Austrian non-profit is working to change both of those numbers – and soon, to bring that mission to the Network Wide Gathering in Slovenia.

From classrooms to companies: education at the core

Since 2023, Zero Waste Austria has been training volunteer workshop leaders to bring zero waste education into schools. The workshops are now listed on Vienna’s official Education Opportunities platform, giving every compulsory school in the city an annual budget to access them at no cost to pupils.

Companies are paying attention too. In 2025, the organisation ran over ten corporate workshops, including sessions at STRABAG and PwC apprenticeship days that reached thousands of young trainees across Austria. A partnership with HalloKlima also helped employees of Lower Austrian cultural enterprises navigate sustainability, sharing knowledge across circular economies and zero waste principles.

Tackling food waste at European scale

Since 2022, Zero Waste Austria has been part of ToNoWaste, its first EU-funded project — a collaboration between 20 institutions across seven countries, working to understand why food gets wasted and how to stop it. Late 2025 saw the first workshops launch with participant groups at very different starting points, from people with little prior knowledge to those already engaged with the topic. Throughout 2026, data will be collected via a dedicated app, and by early 2027, findings will be brought before the European Commission. 

Saving platforms, saving phones

In 2024 Zero Waste Austria officially took over Social Held, an Austrian start-up specialising in the digital placement of voluntary work. The platform’s founder transferred it to Zero Waste Austria to ensure its continuation, recognising that volunteering remains essential for non-profit organisations.

On the repair front, the organisation has been a champion of Austria’s “Geräte-Retter-Prämie” (Device Rescuer Bonus), a government scheme that covers 50% of repair costs for electrical devices. The idea is simple: fixing things is better than throwing them away, and money talks. By making professional repair genuinely affordable, the programme gives electronics a second life, and gives consumers a reason to think twice before replacing something that still works.

Advocating for smarter packaging rules

On the policy front, Zero Waste Austria has been closely engaged with European packaging legislation. The organisation has been collaborating with Members of the European Parliament for ambitious reuse targets in this regulation, and has signed open letters in support of reuse systems as drivers for reducing packaging waste, as well as a petition to ban PVC.

Powered by people

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Zero Waste Austria is how much it achieves with so little. The majority of the team works voluntarily, and much of their work, including all awareness-raising on social media, free webinars, and political advocacy. The organisation is funded largely through memberships, project grants, and paid workshops.  That spirit of collective action is central to their message: zero waste is a journey we can only take together.

“Listening to one another, acting together, learning from each other – this reflects the collective work of Zero Waste Austria, and it is something we strive to live by despite constant resource constraints.” 

Daniela Hinteregger