A mess that won't go away

by Pavel Antonov

As with other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the transition that began in 1989 has changed the way Hungary handles the problem of hazardous waste and created new problems.

Under the communist regime, public debate on the issue was stifled, and leaders gave priority to industrial development over environmental concerns, so there were few regulations on hazardous waste. While Hungary's government now takes a more active role in addressing the problem, the infrastructure and laws for dealing with hazardous waste are still limited.

The Hungarian Waste Management Act, passed in 2000, was a major step toward improving the legislation, but it is just a beginning. "The Waste Management Act is a framework type law," according to Zoltan Illes, chairman of the Parliament's Environmental Committee. "It looks like a naked person in the ballroom whom we need to start dressing up."

Creating or locating the facilities to handle the country's tremendous load of hazardous waste, for example, will take time. By 1990, Hungary already had one hazardous waste incinerator, at Dorog, with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes per year, and a hazardous-waste landfill site at Aszod, with a capacity of 25,000 tonnes per year. But the country now produces about 3.3 million tonnes of hazardous waste annually.

According to a report by Zsuzsanna Pfeiffer, head of the Environmental Protection Department at the Municipal Public Services Co. Ltd in Budapest, Hungarian industries produce more waste than necessary because they employ outdated, inefficient technologies.

Dorog and Aszod have now been privatised, and they still handle much of Hungary's waste. The Dorog incinerator became the property of the French company SARP Industries. The Aszod landfill is owned by an Austrian concern under the name Pyrus-Rumpold Rt.

These two facilities enjoy a near-monopoly in Hungary, so they can charge relatively high prices for their services. While many have advocated construction of new hazardous waste incineration facilities to introduce more competitive prices in the market, Illes is opposed to such a solution. He says that building another hazardous waste incinerator in Hungary will eliminate incentives for producers to reduce their pollution.

Instead, Illes recommends that no permits for new facilities be issued until 2004 at the earliest. By this time, Hungary will be joining the European Union, which gives Hungarian firms access to the existing incinerators in Austria, Germany and other EU countries.