Thanks to the Environmental and Energy Efficiency Operational Program, the capital has taken a step closer to sustainable waste management by expanding eco-friendly technologies and increasing the rate of waste processing and recycling.
As part of an European Union project, the Logistics Service Center of the Waste Management Division of Budapest Public Utilities FKF, which serves as a waste transfer station, has commenced operations. This significantly contributes to reducing traffic congestion and harmful emissions from waste collection vehicles in the southern districts of Pest. The center enables the transfer of 110,000 tons of municipal waste annually using a completely closed, odorless, and dust-free technology, with low noise emissions. The job creation impact of the new facility is also significant: the project has created 150 new, long-term, sustainable jobs that strengthen the green economy.
The center not only functions as a transfer station but also houses a new waste yard, increasing the number of waste yards serving the population in Budapest to 18. At the facility open on Sundays, Budapest residents can drop off waste that cannot be disposed of during curbside collection, completely free of charge and in a selective manner. Afterwards, the materials accumulated in the waste collection point are recycled or disposed of by Budapest Public Utilities.
In addition, two Awareness and Reuse Centers have been established, which, in terms of their function, promote reuse and provide educational and awareness-raising activities. The primary goal is to find new homes for items that are no longer wanted or needed but are still usable by others, meaning as many items as possible should return to the community. In the center’s modern classrooms, there is an opportunity to hold environmental protection and professional conferences, as well as interactive, awareness-raising sessions and classes for children living or studying in the surrounding districts.
As part of this EU investment, a bulky waste shredder was also installed at the Capital Waste Treatment Plant. With this device, large bulky waste can be shredded, which can later be utilized due to their excellent heating value in providing district heating and electricity supply in Budapest. The plant has also been equipped with a metal separator, so today they can recover ferromagnetic metals from the slag remaining after thermal utilization, which can then be returned to the economic cycle as a valuable raw material. The newly completed Waste Sorting Plant provides the capital city’s public service provider with the opportunity to sort the selectively collected waste from residents themselves and pass it on for recycling under optimized conditions.
Thanks to the implementation of the project, Budapest Public Utilities can recycle a significant portion of the waste collected in the capital and its agglomeration, more than 70%, which is a tremendous advancement towards achieving the target values set in EU directives for sustainable, circular waste management.
The development was implemented from EU funding in the project KEHOP-3.2.2-15-2016-00001 under the Environmental and Energy Efficiency Operational Programme.
Find out more about the project in the Project Finder:Details
