Challenges of municipal waste management in Hungary

Aims, tasks and priorities of medium term development plans of national waste management weredefined in the National Waste Management Plan, which was made for the period of 2003–2008 inHungary. Supporting of the European Union is indispensable for carrying out of plan. The mostimportant areas are related to the developing projects of municipal solid waste treatment (increasingthe capacity of landfills, accomplishment of the infrastructure of selective waste collection, buildingof new composting plants). The national environmental policy does not focus sufficiently on theprevention of waste production. Due to the high expenses of investment and operation the energeticrecovery and the incineration of municipal solid waste do not compete with the deposition. Weinclined to think that the waste management of Hungary will be deposition-orientated until 2015. Themain problems to the next years will be the lack of reprocessing industry of plastic and glasspackaging waste. The high number of to-be-recultivated landfills and the attainability of necessaryfinancial sources are also serious problems. There are many questions. What is the future in nationalwaste management? How can we reduce the quantity of dumped waste? What are challenges ofnational waste management on the short and long term