Organisation
Altstoff Recycling Austria Aktiengesellschaft (ARA) was founded in 1993 on an initiative of Austrian trade and industry. As a service company, ARA provides a wide array of services to all companies that are affected by the Austrian Packaging Ordinance.
ARA is the central resource for companies that seek information on packaging collection and recovery. As a non-profit organisation, ARA operates along the principles of efficiency, cost effectiveness, and ecological viability. It signs contracts with its customers, the so-called license partners, and is in charge of levying, keeping in trust, and allocating license revenues to the branch recycling companies, thereby providing the financing of the collection and recycling of waste packaging.
License partners of ARA are granted the exclusive right to use the "Dot" on the packaged products they distribute on the Austrian market.
ARA is a privately run stock company owned by Altstoff Recycling Austria Verein, an association that also functions as the sole shareholder. Every company that manufactures, imports, or distributes packaged products, can become a member of this association.
