Hungary Listed Among Waste Saviors

While Hungary's overall overconsumption rate, an indicator of the rate of Earth's resources depletion, is worse than the global average, the country is among the leaders in the international field in terms of plastic waste management, according to a new report on Plastic Overshoot Day.

The financial portal portfolio.hu quotes from the report that Hungary's annual per capita plastic consumption is expected to reach 49.5 kilograms in 2023, among the highest in the world and almost two and a half times the international average of 20.9 kilograms.

This puts Hungary in 12th place on the international list, with only Iceland, Luxembourg, Italy and Norway ahead of us and worse off in this respect among the European countries compared.

The most important indicator in the report is an index of the proportion of plastic waste that is poorly managed. With an index of 1.32%, Hungary is fourth from the bottom of the international ranking, meaning that only Luxembourg, Hong Kong and Iceland have a lower share of uncollected and poorly treated waste as a proportion of total plastic waste generated.

For this reason, Hungary is listed among the ’Waste Saviors’. The Waste Saviors have moderate plastic consumption levels and manage their waste relatively well. These countries have an overall positive influence on the global waste crisis, assuming responsibility for managing waste from other countries in addition to their own.

The countries listed – Costa Rica, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand, Slovak Republic, Sweden – collectively, account for 0.31 day out of the total 157 days of plastic overshoot projected to occur in 2023.

Overshoot Day for Hungary, the date when the amount of plastic waste outweighs the country's ability to manage it, with environmental pollution occurring as a result, is December 27, 2023.