Too much plastic waste causes problems

Nowadays it is trendy to be ‘green’ in Hungary as well. According to the experts of HWD Recycling Kft., the waste recycling market is affected by China’s decision to make waste import rules stricter. This can primarily cause problems in the domain of plastic waste.

Norbert Höflinger
strategy director
HWD Recycling

Norbert Höflinger, strategy director of HWD Recycling Kft. revealed that lots of plastic waste is deposited in European warehouses, waiting to be taken away and recycled.

ÖKO-Pannon Nonprofit Kft. specialises in consultancy and performing certain product fee-related tasks on behalf of partners.

Beáta Gönci
managing director
ÖKO-Pannon

Managing director Beáta Gönci told us that there are different regulations in Hungary for managing industrial and commercial waste, and waste collected from consumers (including the waste collected selectively).Thanks to this, the market conditions are different too: industrial waste is collected and utilised in a competitive environment, while a state-owned company (NHKV Zrt.) has monopoly in managing waste collected from consumers.

György Deák
CEO
Biofilter

Biofilter Zrt.’s main profile is collecting organic waste, especially from companies in the HORECA and FMCG sectors. CEO György Deák explained that due to the constantly growing quantity, the collecting and processing of used cooking oil and food waste require an even more complex logistic background than before. The authorities use strict tracking systems to check to route of waste, from producer to processor, therefore the administrative burden also got bigger.

Ms Gönci told that for market players the biggest challenge of the next few years will be transposing the EU’s circular economy package into Hungarian legislation and everyday practice. This will have an influence on the FMCG sector too, from product design to the costs and organisation work related to recycling. Mr Deák spoke to our magazine about consumers starting to be aware of how important collecting used cooking oil is. In cooperation with MOL Nyrt., Biofilter Zrt. has set up 365 collection points at MOL petrol stations all over Hungary. Mr Höflinger called attention to the ever-bigger problem of generating more plastic waste. Recycling plastics – primarily because of composite plastics – is a permanent challenge for companies.

HWD Recycling Kft. offers many different services to partners, from one-off waste collection to complex waste management. Their most popular service remains to be collecting no longer wanted fridges, air conditioning units and electronic devices, but more and more customers commission them with POS material and other store waste collection and processing. Since January 2018 more workers process the waste collected from partners at bigger and more modern premises.

Biofilter Zrt. takes away used cooking oil and food waste from bars and restaurants, retail chains and processing companies; at the same time they also supply professional kitchens with cooking oil. In 2011 GREENPRO Zrt. became a member of the Biofilter Group; the company is a specialist of dealing with expired food products and by-products from livestock origin. What is more, GREENPRO also does the cleaning and maintenance of fat and oil catchers – partners include TESCO and AUCHAN. Collected cooking oil is utilised as biodiesel, while 100-percent of the food waste and animal by-products ends up as raw material for making biogas fuel. //