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2.9

The amount of municipal solid waste produced per capita first decreased as a result of falling consumption levels in the wake of the global economic crisis, then started to rise again. It is still below the EU average, which in itself is good news. The proportion of waste deposited in landfills is continuously decreasing, but it is still very high, being around two-thirds of the total amount. Negative trends emerge concerning the utilization of packaging materials: though the government demolished the system used previously, the new state-run model devised in its place falls short of producing the results of its predecessor.

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Municipal solid waste

The quantity of municipal solid waste per capita produced in Hungary remained at a similar level every year between 2000 and 2007. From 2008 on, quantities dropped significantly, thanks in part to a decrease in consumption caused by the economic crisis. Per capita municipal solid waste amounted to 413 kg in 2010, and dropped to 389 kilograms by 2012.

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Ratio of landfilling

In the case of municipal solid waste, landfill deposits are far from sustainable. Wherever possible, the use of this waste management practice should be minimized. Though as a result of selective household waste collection practices and the spread of reprocessing it is used less and less frequently in Hungarian waste management, but is still very prevalent, amounting to nearly two-thirds of the total amount of waste produced.

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Hazardous waste

The amount of hazardous waste issued decreased a lot since the 2000s, but this was also due to changes in legislation and changes in the statistical methods implemented. Recovery is only slightly increasing. A number of landfills Hungary have no legal owner, imposing serious environmental risks (cf. the Illatos út deposit). Most of the recovery capacity is privately owned and insufficient.

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Packaging

In the previous peak year of 2008, the total production of packaging materials in Hungary amounted to 880 thousand tons. A significant decrease followed suit in the wake of the economic crisis, the figure falling back to 820 million tons by 2011. In 2012, production started to rise steeply again, reaching 1,146,311 tons. The dimensions of this expansion might also be accounted for changes in the methodology of calculation, given that such a leap was not justified by economic developments.

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Product fees

Due to the restructuring of both the environmental product fee system and of the waste control system, the continuity of the data series was broken. According to the latest data, for the year 2012,  income generated from environmental product fees on packaging materials amounted to 45.5 billion forints. From this amount, the budget spent HUF 7.5 billion on waste recovery. Adjusting for the operating expenses of the state waste management agency financed from the same source, this is still less than 20% of the revenues generated.