Holidays in Vienna: tips for waste prevention

You can benefit from our eco-friendly city in many ways:

Luxury for free: Drink tap water

Viennese people enjoy drinking top quality water from the tap since the 19th century – it comes directly from alpine areas in Styria and Lower Austria. For tourists in many cases this is not a matter of course. In many big cities drinking water is heavily chlorinated or generally undrinkable. Bottled water is the only option for them. Nobody in Vienna has to buy water in plastic bottles. You can save money and prevent waste at the same time.

1500 drinking fountains in public space

1500 places in the city offer cold water of highest quality for free. The location of these sites can be found at www.wien.gv.at/stadtplan under „Gesundheit & Soziales“ selecting „Trinkbrunnen“.

Vienna – the clean city

Vienna is proud to be one of the cleanest cities in the world. This is for sure one of the reasons why tourists feel so comfortable in our city. The municipality has invested a lot of money in its waste management infrastructure to sustain this status. We are proud of our efficient street cleaning staff and the Waste Watchers who watch out for illegal disposal of waste in public space. A close-knit network of well marked waste bins help to separate waste for recycling. To help to make waste separation easy to understand for tourists information is provided in many languages: www.wien.gv.at/umwelt/ma48/service/publikationen/index.html#folder

Vienna – the green city on the water

Vienna is the right place for those who want to enjoy both city and nature. 50 % of the city area is green space. The Vienna Woods and the Danube Island are large recreational areas for people living here or those who are visiting Vienna. They boast of high environmental quality and top-quality recreational facilities. And Vienna is the only European capital with an internationally recognized national park within the city area. Specific maintainance and management of the Donauauen National Park guarantee the long term protection of this habitat. Besides wildlife and habitat conservation programmes recreational use and environmental education are important aspects of sustainable use of this national park.

• national park Wienerwald: www.bpww.at
• Donauinsel: www.wien.gv.at/umwelt/gewaesser/donauinsel
• national park danube: www.donauauen.at

Tourism and leisure with a green heart

Quality and eco-friendliness are preliminaries to be awarded with the Austrian Environmental Label for Tourist Facilities. Eco-friendly activities in these companies range from water and energy efficiency measures to regional and seasonal dishes or sustainable transport. In Vienna 134 enterprises are labelled. This makes Vienna the absolute front-runner in Austria.

Eco-friendly transport in Vienna

The public transport network in Vienna is well developed and renowned. With a single ticket you can use all public transport facilities within the city boundaries. In addition Vienna has a dense network of cycling paths and an easy to use City Bike system for short-term hire of bicycles. The City of Vienna has introduced short-term parking zones in many districts. Therefore it is advisable to leave your car outside the city or in one of the many park-and-ride fa