Citizens defend themselves against Schrottplatz in Greinsfurth: signatures necessary!

Citizens defend themselves against Schrottplatz in Greinsfurth: signatures necessary!

Greinsfurth, Österreich - The citizens' initiative in Amstetten has woken up! On July 14, 2025, Peter Rausch, the spokesman for this initiative, announced that they now have to put themselves on their own legs. The background? A explosive project by Besta Holding GmbH provides to build a scrap collecting place on a 1,800 square meter area in Greinsfurth. This includes scrap shears and a warehouse with an office building. This project ensures concerned faces among residents and relaxation seekers in the nearby Forstheide nature reserve. Because the Citizens' Initiative has set itself the goal of manifesting the growing rejection of the population against this project, as Kurier.

A central point of the citizens' initiative are the fears regarding the effects of the scrap site. It is expected with an increased noise pollution, stench and fine dust. The worst: there is concern that contaminated leachate could endanger the drinking water stream under Greinsfurth. Rausch also warns of the permanent risk of self -infections and the risk of air pollution by the different scrap fractions. So far, 536 residents and citizens, including the municipality of Amstetten, have already submitted objections to the plan.

signature campaign and reactions of the authority

In order to support your concerns, the citizens' initiative has started a signature campaign. This is aimed at both the residents of Greinsfurth and to those seeking relaxation in the nature area. So far, however, it remains unclear how the competent authority for environmental and investment law in Lower Austria will react to the collected votes. A public negotiation according to the Waste Management Act is currently not planned, but could be initiated at any time by new documents or reports. So it remains exciting how the situation will develop.

In the neighboring Gaggenau-Oberweier, a similar problem can be observed. Here, a citizens' initiative draws attention to the illegal deposit of special waste. Over 5,000 cubic meters of highly loaded seepage water concentrate from 25,000 cubic meters of seepage water are filtered out, which has been happening since 1986. The Gaggenau Citizens' Initiative advocates more transparency and informs the population about the processes around the landfill. It calls for an immediate termination of the return of the seepage water concentrate to the landfill to avoid future problems, such as Baden latest news reports.

the European context

The challenges that the citizens' initiatives in Amstetten and Gaggenau are facing are part of a larger trend in Europe. An example of this is the "Right2water" campaign, which successfully established access to clean water as a human right in Europe. Over 1.8 million signatures were collected to take action against water privatization and protect public water services. These actions show how important public participation and the commitment to your own interests are also emphasized in the local context, such as Citizens Initiative Forum

It remains to be seen whether and how the initiatives in Amstetten and Gaggenau will develop and what results they will achieve. However, one thing is clear: the topic of environment and health will also employ the population in the coming weeks and months.