22nd International Electronics Recycling Congress IERC 2024

IERC 2024 is the leading event in the Circular Economy Electronics world. It brings together up to 500 international professionals from the entire electronics recycling value chain, from materials suppliers, collection organisations, OEMs, competent authorities to recyclers and re-use and repair organisations. An exhibition area with over 60 booths provides the perfect opportunity to reach key industry decision makers and to find out what’s new in the global electronics recycling business.

The 21^st century poses enormous ecological challenges for humanity. A rapidly growing world population, the rapid increase in levels of material wealth in emerging economies and our economic and lifestyle practices are permanently increasing the pressure exerted on our planet. The "planetary limits" defined by science have already been exceeded many times and thus severely threaten our ecological livelihood.

The sharp rise in the use and consumption of resources is creating considerable environmental burdens. Around 50% of greenhouse gas emissions and more than 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress are attributable to resource extraction and processing. The production of steel, cement, plastics, paper and aluminium alone causes 36% of all global greenhouse emissions.

The reduction of resource consumption, waste and emissions therefore has a special importance within the context of sustainable development and climate protection. The realisation requires a fundamental transformation from the linear “take-make-use-waste” economy to a circular economy.

In a circularly oriented economy, raw materials are attained in an environmentally-friendly manner and the resulting goods are produced in a manner that spares resources and reduces waste. The life span of the products is extended and their use intensified. At the end of use, products and goods are returned to the product cycle to retain their value as long as possible. Only when products can no longer be used elsewhere are they collected, recycled and used as secondary raw materials in the material cycle. Only the waste that is not suitable for recycling is used for energy or disposed of. Where new primary raw materials are required, the circular economy uses renewable, biogenic resources and sustainably attained, generally available raw materials. Technical and biological circuits are thus largely closed within the anthropogenic system.

Despite successes in some areas, Austria is still at the start of the journey like most countries. The transformation into a climate-neutral circular economy requires comprehensive changes, not only technological and economic changes, but also in the fundamental attitudes and behaviours of the entire society – an extensive paradigm shift. For this reason, my ministry has developed a national circular economy strategy with the involvement of numerous stakeholders, which is supported by the entire Austrian federal government. The vision behind the strategy is to transform the Austrian economy and society into a climate-neutral, sustainable circular economy by 2050. The central goals of the strategy are:

Reduction of our Domestic Material Consumption (DMC) to a maximum of 14 tonnes per capita/year (2030)
Reduction of our Material Footprint (MF) to a maximum of 7 tonnes per capita/year (2050)
Increase in resource productivity by 50 percent (2030)
Increase in the circularity rate to 18 per cent (2030)
Reduction of private household consumption by 10 per cent (2030)

The implementation of the strategy is already underway in many sectors. I look forward to being able to report back to you soon on the successes.

The IERC is the most important annual event concerning the promising topic of circular economy in electrical engineering and electronics, and this year’s programme is once again to set new standards in the fields of sustainable waste management, circular economy and recycling. There will be a variety of interesting presentations, exhibitions and plant tours, as well as fruitful conversations and discussions.

I would like to wish all participants a successful and enjoyable visit to Salzburg.

Leonore Gewessler