UNTHA wins Innovation Award

UNTHA shredding technology GmbH, based in Kuchl, has been awarded the Salzburg Innovation Award 2026 – a prestigious accolade for innovative companies whose market-ready projects demonstrate the quality and diversity of the regional economy. The award is presented by the Provincial Government of Salzburg, the Salzburg Chamber of Commerce and Innovation Salzburg. In addition, the award comes with a nomination for the Austrian State Prize for Innovation.

Salzburg Innovation Award: Alois Kitzberger (CEO), Stefan Scheiflinger-Ehrenwert (CIO), Christian Lanner (Head of Research & Prototyping) and Marco Hohlhut (Research & Prototyping)
© UNTHA shredding technology GmbH und Innovation Salzburg/Benedikt Schemmer

The Salzburg Innovation Award was presented for the first time in 2026. The aim of the initiative is to raise the profile of companies from Salzburg and bring their developments to the fore. A renowned jury of experts from the worlds of business and science assessed the entries based on their degree of innovation, implementation strength and future potential. Alongside UNTHA’s new high-performance shredder, the SR3000, projects from AUGMENTERRA GmbH, Commend International GmbH and meshmakers GmbH were also honoured. The Innovation Award thus impressively demonstrates the wide range of Salzburg’s innovation landscape – from AI and infrastructure to sustainable environmental technology.

Salzburg Innovation Award: (from left): Lorenz Maschke (juror), Christian Lanner (UNTHA), Stefan Scheiflinger-Ehrenwert
© UNTHA shredding technology GmbH und Innovation Salzburg/Benedikt Schemmer

Award-winning environmental technology

UNTHA impressed the jury across the board with its submitted product, the “SR3000”. This powerful and energy-efficient high-performance shredder enables the production of high-quality secondary or substitute fuels (RDF) from non-recyclable waste materials. These are primarily used in energy-intensive industries such as cement production, where they replace fossil fuels such as oil, gas or lignite. The technology thus makes an important contribution to reducing CO₂ emissions. The SR3000 paves the way for more climate-friendly applications such as “Green Cement” and actively supports companies in their transition to more sustainable production processes.

Salzburg Innovation Award: The winners and guests of honour at the 2026 Salzburg Innovation Award
© UNTHA shredding technology GmbH und Innovation Salzburg/Benedikt Schemmer

Open innovation as a key to success

UNTHA consistently applies the open innovation principle when developing new technologies. Even before they are launched on the market, new machines are tested under real-world conditions – in collaboration with customers and users. The feedback gained from this is incorporated directly into further development. This results in solutions that are not only technologically advanced but also meet the actual requirements of real-world applications.

“Winning the Salzburg Innovation Award is a wonderful sign that we are on the right track with our work and our open innovation approach. Our entire R&D team has achieved extraordinary things in recent years and, together with external partners, has developed future-proof solutions that will bring about a sustainable transformation in waste processing,” says Stefan Scheiflinger-Ehrenwert, Chief Innovation Officer at UNTHA.

The new SR3000 will be unveiled to a wide audience for the first time in May 2026 at IFAT Munich, alongside other new and further developments.

www.untha.com