WINTRUST

In the last five years, around 1.8 million pairs of skis and ski boots, 2.3 million pairs of ski poles and 1.4 million helmets have been sold in Austria. The resulting used sports equipment is currently treated as bulky waste at the end of its life and thermally recovered instead of being recycled. In order to improve this situation, it is necessary to establish separation, processing capacities, sales markets, product applications and process technologies for recycled materials.

The WINTRUST project therefore focuses on the recycling of end-of-life (EoL) post-consumer waste from winter sports hard goods such as skis including bindings, ski boots, ski poles and ski helmets, which are mainly made from high-energy materials such as high-performance plastics and are also produced in regions with lower climate protection standards. The main objectives of the project are a) the analysis of reprocessing possibilities to significantly increase the material recycling of defined winter sports hard goods and b) the joint, uniform ecological and economic evaluation of this recycling.

The project consortium from industry and science is therefore making a significant contribution to the circular economy and positive climate impact by increasing the process efficiency of material recycling and by substituting primary resources with recycled materials.