Floods send carpets of plastic waste down river to Hungary

Flooding has sent carpets of waste plastic down river into Hungary over the past few days, officials say, despite earlier pleas to its upstream neighbours Ukraine and Romania for an end to the pollution.

As of Monday, floating garbage disposal units have removed 500 cubic metres of waste from the Tisza and Szamos rivers. Plastic bottles are streaming in on the Tisza from Ukraine, where it rises, and on the Szamos river that flows from Romania.

While much of the debris flowing downstream is organic when water levels rise, household waste, including slippers and even televisions, appears alongside the plastic bottles. The floating waste reached Hungary’s border late last week, requiring the deployment of disposal teams for the sixth time over the past year and a half.

Reuters