Austria-headed UNTHA shredding technology GmbH (UNTHA) has announced that it has been awarded the inaugural 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.
The new Salzburg Innovation Award initiative aims 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 SR3000 high-performance shredder, which will be launched at the upcoming IFAT 2026 trade show, 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.
Award-winning environmental technology
UNTHA impressed the jury across the board with its submitted product, the “SR3000” shredder.
This powerful and energy-efficient high-performance shredder enables the production of high-quality secondary or refuse-derived fuel (RDF) from non-recyclable waste materials, primarily used in energy-intensive industries such as cement production, replacing fossil fuels such as oil, gas, or lignite.
The technology thus makes an important contribution to reducing carbon dioxide (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.
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, resulting 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, said Stefan Scheiflinger-Ehrenwert, Chief Innovation Officer at UNTHA.
Unveiling at IFAT 2026
The new SR3000 will be unveiled to a wide audience for the first time at IFAT Munich, alongside other new and further developments, including the latest evolution of the proven XR mobil-e platform, all under the theme “Rethinking Innovation”.
The XR mobil-e—an industry-leading semi-mobile shredder—has also been significantly upgraded to deliver even greater efficiency and performance.
An XR3000RC mobil-e equipped with the new UNTHA Power Core will be operating live during the VDMA Demonstration Days on the IFAT outdoor grounds.
Our developments represent a real technological leap forward. We solve shredding problems that were previously considered difficult to implement or uneconomical. With our new shredders, we enable customers worldwide to process even the most demanding materials quickly and efficiently, thus creating new value-added potential, ended Stefan Scheiflinger-Ehrenwerth.
