Is it worthwhile to recycle in Budapest?
Posted by Inside-Associate-729@reddit | budapest | View on Reddit | 16 comments
I've heard rumors that there is no point in recycling in Budapest, because all of the plastic just goes straight to the landfills anyway. Does anyone know whether there is any truth to this at all?
I read that there was a whole scandal in Romania, where this turned out to be the case. I am just wondering if anyone has any information about the truth of the matter in Hungary.
Note:
I am not talking about the RePont system. I understand that the glass bottles and aluminum cans actually get recycled. I mean everything else, which goes into the yellow or blue lid bins.
DataNerdling@reddit
I was in allee recently and the person emptying the bins was just dumping everything into the same bag
in my building the person who remvoes the bins will constantly throw recycles into the waste and vice versa
StructuralVision@reddit
In malls and offices, cleaners will often do that as they can't be bothered to carry around 3 different large bags on 1000s of m2 areas, especially if there are only a few bits in each bin. Or in rare cases someone has spilled some liquid in one of the bins, rendering it all useless, so the cleaner will just chuck it all in the common waste. At least what the cleaners tell me in our office I work at.
botsoundingname@reddit
Yeah at malls it’s just a “látszatintézkedés”. They have three holes for different types of refuse and they all lead into the same bag lol
Inside-Associate-729@reddit (OP)
Ok but it’s possible that both of those people are just assholes.
I am wondering whether the actual municipal recycling infrastructure still works as it should.
vahokif@reddit
The municipal system works as far as I know, see the videos other people linked.
Then_Tomorrow8738@reddit
we dont really know.
BeautifulTale6351@reddit
You can also hear rumors that vaccination causes autism or becoming gay.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/recycling-rates-by-country
No-Statement2736@reddit
Many plastics are not easily recyclable, but that's not an issue that's specific to Budapest
neat_hairclip@reddit
It does. They may not be recycled as our heart hopes - as many plastics and papers are not recyclable in a sense as to make new great products out of them - but they will be utilised. I participated in a session with a person who works with waste treatment and he explained what goes where. He was working at a time for a for-profit waste management company, but he had good insight into the overall recycling. The only exception he mentioned was glass at the time. Mind you this was a few years ago, it might have changed. But back then a state owned company had monopoly of glass recycling and they were practically not doing it. At least that is what he reported.
I have the impression that such rumors generally come from people who look for every excuse not to make an effort to be more ecofriendly.
Recycling is not a magic solution, a lot of waste cannot be reused and will be burnt for example - but besides reducing waste, this is what we have now.
zsgyulavari@reddit
these rumors might have been true at some point in time when the infrastructure wasn't yet complete and they were just trying to teach the people first to separate trash. it's not just go to landfill and haven't been going for ages.
Inside-Associate-729@reddit (OP)
I hope you are right! Can you provide a source for that please?
zsgyulavari@reddit
https://youtu.be/h8X8D0yHtTo?si=Xrfngx7cdl5CRLkS
it's an educational video on how they process it further. it's hungarian, but i hope the auto translated subtitles are good enough.
it addresses your question not even 2 minutes in
Inside-Associate-729@reddit (OP)
Thank you!!
Gold_Combination_520@reddit
Yeah no that's not the case. They're even separating them on waste management sites, here's the official site for the system, there's a video of the process too.
Greeklighting@reddit
I just place anything with a redemption deposit in a bag and leave it outside so anyone who usually looks through trash cans for bottles can cash it in .
Inside-Associate-729@reddit (OP)
I am not referring to items with a redemption deposit, i.e. RePont. I mean everything else that is technically recyclable