DOI: 10.3303/CET24114152
Paper Received: 28 June 2024; Revised: 28 August 2024; Accepted: 4 December 2024
Please cite this article as: Boros A., Macher G.Z., Torma A., 2024, The Elimination of Illegal Waste in Hungary: New System of Sanctions and
the First Results, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 114, 907-912 DOI:10.3303/CET24114152
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS
VOL. 114, 2024
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The Elimination of Illegal Waste in Hungary: New System of
Sanctions and the First Results
Anita Borosa, Gergely Zoltán Macher*,b, András Tormab
aHungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Circular Economy Analysis Centre, Institute of Agricultural and Food
Economics, Hungary
bDepartment of Applied Sustainability, Széchenyi István University, Egyetem tér 1, 9026 Győr, Hungary
macher.gergely.zoltan@sze.hu
Illegal dumping is a persistent environmental challenge, with limited comprehensive data collection practices
across EU Member States, leading to a lack of comparative databases on this issue. This paper addresses the
problem by focusing on illegal dumping in Hungary and examining the development of a digital model for
monitoring these activities, along with the characteristics and sanctions related to illegal dumping. By exploring
waste management practices in the Visegrad Group Member States, this paper highlights the absence of
systematic data collection and presents Hungary as a case example where citizens reported over 22,000 cases
of illegal dumping in just six months via the WasteRadar application. The research findings underscore
Hungary’s recent reforms, which introduced a nationwide database for tracking illegal dumping and imposed
stricter sanctions aimed at mitigating the adverse environmental impacts of such activities. These actions signify
important strides in addressing illegal dumping and improving environmental governance. This paper highlights
the main characteristics of the reform of the Hungarian regulation, such as the advantages of the introduced
method, such as establishing a country-wide database on illegal dumping and introducing significantly stricter
sanctions on this activity to reduce the harmful environmental effects.
1. Introduction
In 2018, the EU generated 5.2 t of waste per inhabitant. Hungary has made significant progress in addressing
illegal waste and sanctioning improper dumping practices. Hungarian environmental experts have extensively
examined this topic in recent years. While not one of the major waste-producing Member States, Hungary saw
a decreasing trend in waste generation from 2004 to 2007, with a sudden decline in 2008 due to methodological
changes and further declines in subsequent years partly linked to the global economic crisis. Despite minor
fluctuations between 2010 and 2016, the amount of waste remained essentially unchanged until an increase in
2017, followed by slightly higher amounts in subsequent years, totalling around 18-19 Mt since then. Illegal
dumping continues to be a problem due to limitations on waste sorting and disposal capacity as well as high
delivery costs discouraging regular disposal practices (Bándi, 2020a). Despite progress and forward-looking
proposals by international regulators, illegal waste has increased significantly in certain areas over the past
years. In Hungary, illegal waste comprises household mixed waste (including used equipment, furniture, toys,
books, and textiles), construction and demolition waste, green waste, and plastic packaging. Hazardous
materials are often found within the illegally disposed waste, which renders it unsuitable for recycling or creating
high-quality secondary raw materials. Citizens seem to have an attitude of perceiving the disposal of redundant
items as almost legitimate after the first act goes unpunished. Additionally, abandoned devices lead to further
accumulation of waste in a short period. Notably, a significant portion of discarded items has already been
deposited earlier, leading to the increased presence of abandoned wastes over time.
Chapter 2 Illegal waste is typically found in areas that are less controlled or controllable (D'Amato et al., 2018).
Illegal waste dumping, however, is a deviant behaviour (Pellow, 2004) that occurs daily, as it may range from
throwing away a paper tissue to the improper dumping of heavy construction waste (Laundra, 2011). On the
state side, the available information, presumably only fragmentary in terms of the whole country, is available
from the local governments obliged to perform road cleaning tasks, from state public service providers, and from
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non-governmental organisations (Sedova, 2015). Based on these, illegal dumping of waste is most common in
areas alongside roads and railways, easily accessible forests, nature conservation areas, riverbanks, and
municipal boundaries (Glanville and Chang, 2015). A significant portion of the illegal waste has been deposited
for some time, partly built into the soil, and a smaller portion has been newly generated. Unfortunately, we do
not currently have any state records of illegal waste dumping locations. Its exact amount is very difficult to
estimate. In addition, it is very important that illegal dumping, in many cases causes irreversible damage to the
area where it is disposed of (Teeratitayangkul et al., 2019), so the illegal dumping frequently induces land and
water contamination with hazardous substances (Triassi et al., 2015) and in the past decades, many studies
have focused on the potential of illegal waste disposal to cause adverse effects on human health in this area
(Tirassi, 2015). The causes of illegal waste have been investigated by several authors: it has been highlighted
in these studies that the propensity to dispose of illegal waste can be influenced by avoiding the collection and
disposal of waste (Choe and Fraser, 1999), the lack of appropriate waste treatment facilities (Munton, 1996),
taxes (Kim et al., 2008), organised waste crime (Baird et al., 2014) and waste trade (Tompson and Chainey,
2011) and explicit control (Dorn et al. 2007) of illegal dumping (Choe and Fraser, 1999).
In recent years, Hungary has taken important steps to address the problem of illegal waste disposal, which is
exacerbated by insufficient waste sorting, limited disposal facilities, and high transportation costs. However,
despite global efforts and proposed regulations, illegal dumping remains a significant issue, particularly in less
controlled areas like roadsides, forests, and nature reserves. The lack of comprehensive national data on illegal
dumping makes it challenging to accurately measure the extent of the problem. This research is crucial as it
sheds light on the growing environmental challenge of illegal waste disposal in Hungary. The paper provides an
overview of the causes and impacts of illegal dumping and examines Hungary's efforts to tackle this problem,
including the implementation of a national monitoring system and stronger penalties.
2. Materials and methods
One of the primary deficiencies in today’s official waste statistical systems is their failure to address illegal
dumping and waste collection, indicators of illegal waste trade, informal waste collection results, and private-
sector waste management. There is a notable scarcity of data and data sources in this area, with a complete
absence of quantitative or qualitative assessment regarding trends in each country. This includes insufficient
information about the quantity and types of illegally dumped waste as well as specific geographic locations for
each dumping incident. However, comprehensive waste statistics are crucial at national and regional levels for
effective waste management policies. Illegal waste dumping poses significant environmental risks due to its
potential impact on environmental effects and toxicity associated with the disposed materials. The escalating
extent of illegal waste dumping underscores its growing relevance from an environmental, legal, and social
perspective (Seror, 2020).
2.1 Data
While certain sources offer insight into the scale of illegal waste disposal in all EU Member States, they are
often informal (e.g., initiatives led by citizens) and should not be considered a statistically representative data
source. This is especially true as these initiatives depend on individual citizen participation, which may vary
between countries. The illegal trade and disposal of waste pose a significant challenge for numerous countries.
UNECE notes that this issue is not typically included in waste statistics. The European Environment Agency
(2009) reported that annual instances of illegal shipments range from 6,000 to 47,000 t, with an average of
approximately 22,000 t. This complex problem can be attributed to various factors, such as different legal
definitions, category classifications, and diverse methods of data collection and management. Presently, the
most comprehensive information is derived from citizen observations using digital tools and databases like the
TrashOut (2022) application. However, it's important to acknowledge that data collected in this manner may not
be fully representative or complete. This paper is based on data from this database and the Hungarian Waste
Radar. The primary consideration in defining the study period is the revision and revalidation of the data.
2.2 Applied statistical methods
This paper employed a range of statistical techniques for data analysis. Initially, descriptive statistical methods
were utilised to summarise and elucidate the data, encompassing mean calculations, variance determinations,
and proportion assessments. The relationship between variables was explored through Pearson correlation
analysis. Multivariate analysis techniques like linear regression or logistic regression were also applied.
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3. Results
Due to the limited availability of verified databases, international comparisons in the field of illegal waste dumping
are challenging. Researchers often rely on population observations from comparative experiments. However, it
is important to note that this data may not be sufficiently reliable and should only be used to gain a general
understanding of the population's attitude in each examined country. The TrashOut (2022) application is a
comprehensive resource available in Visegrád countries, providing an online platform for users to report illegal
dumps in their surroundings. This facilitates collaboration between citizens, waste management organisations,
local governments, and environmental NGOs. The study period spans from 2012 to 2021, with Figure 1 showing
the aggregated value of notifications across different countries. As can be seen from the chart, Slovakia had the
highest number of notifications between 2012 and 2021 (Sedova, 2016). Hungary is in second place among the
member states of the Visegrád group. However, it is important to emphasise that this is not necessarily a
negative indicator but rather an indication of the attitude of the population.
Figure 1: Total number of notifications from Visegrad Group countries between 2012 and 2021 plotted from data
by (TrashOut, 2022)
It is also worth examining the distribution of values over time (Figure 2). During the investigated period, the
values were in the same range except for the data for Hungary, which had an outstanding value in 2020. The
reason for this is that in 2020, a jump of more than an order of magnitude can be observed in the number of
illegal landfills reported among the Hungarian population. The reason for the jump can only be assumed based
on the data. Consequently, the reason for the jump cannot be determined from the nature of the system. In
general, there is a slightly fluctuating trend in illegal dumping in each of the Visegrad Group Member States.
Figure 2: Number of notifications from Visegrad Group countries between 2012 and 2021, plotted using data
from (TrashOut, 2022)
One of the problems with illegal waste is that it can cause aesthetic problems, but it also poses a risk to human
and biosphere health due to toxicity and affects the general well-being indices. The number of landfills per
10,000 inhabitants in each country gives a detailed insight into the prevalence of this activity in each country.
The source of population data is the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH, 2022). Population data are the
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mid-year population in 2020, expressed in millions. Based on the illegal landfills per 10,000 inhabitants, Slovakia
has the highest value (17.8), followed by Hungary (3.97), the Czech Republic (2.12) and Poland (0.385).
A waste reporting application called "WasteRadar" is available in Hungary to report illegal landfills. Developed
by the Government Informatics Development Agency with support from the Ministry for Innovation and
Technology (MGFU, 2021), it was completed at the end of 2021 and is now accessible to all citizens. The agency
sends notifications to affected area owners or competent waste management authorities based on system
entries. Feedback on the cleaned areas will be sent to the Ministry for Innovation and Technology. These
notifications are sent on a weekly basis since the 1st of July 2021. Based on these notifications, the following
values are reported between 01. July 2021 and 03. December 2021.:
• Number of notifications: 22,713;
• Number of registered users: 19,021;
• Number of illegal waste dumps exceeding 5 m3: 4,446;
• Number of notifications between 1-5 m3: 10,948;
• Used vehicle tyres are reported in 3,580 notifications
• Number of wrecked car reports: 1,700.
Also, based on the project status report of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology (MGFU, 2021), the
following values can be determined: the number of notifications that were sent to the owner, manager, or trustee
of the affected area was 22,347. The number of notifications sent to the managers and trustees of state
territories was 5,862, of which 3,537 were sent to the state intermediate organisation named in the Government
Resolution, and the remaining 2,325 notifications were received by other state organisations (e.g., National
Agricultural Center, Ministry of Defense, Universities, etc.). Based on the received feedback, the cooperating
organisations have transported a total of 34,254 t of illegal waste from the dump sites. Between 16 March 2021
and 31 October 2021, 16,371 t of illegal waste were shipped by involving government agencies. The number of
notifications received by each cooperating organisation is illustrated in Figure 5. In total, the size of the cleaned
area was 13,361.54 m3 (mainly state forests) by the 28th of November 2021.
Figure 3: The number of notifications received by cooperating organisations till 03 December 2021, data from
(MGFU, 2021)
In the case of Hungarian State Railways, the organisation have cleared illegal waste landfills for 316
notifications, with approximately 963,331 t of shipped waste. The Hungarian Public Roads Nonprofit
Organization Management have shipped 1,217 t of illegal waste away. Forests were cleaned up of
approximately 2,105.02 m3 of waste till the 28th of November 2021. The collected waste amount comprised
1,492.77 m3 of mixed waste, 271.80 m3 of construction and demolition waste, 124.9 m3 of tyres, 126.25 m3 of
green waste, 48.4 m3 of hazardous waste, 15.90 m3 of electrical and electronic waste. The remaining quantity
was different kinds of additional industrial and scrap car waste categories. By the 31st of December 2021, 196
sites had been cleaned by 10 national park directorates, of which 26 sites were included in the “WasteRadar”
notifications. A total of 5,258 m3 of waste was shipped. The General Directorate of Water Management had
collected a total of 768.8 t of mixed waste (8,562 m3) and 6.9 t (80.3 m3) of hazardous waste at 676 sites.
Illegal waste dumping often reoccurs rapidly after clean-up efforts, especially in less visible areas. This is a
significant issue domestically and within many member states of the European Union. The "Let's Clean Up the
Country!" project alone cannot fully address this problem as it does not prevent rapid regeneration of dumped
waste. Certain locations are considered attractive for new illegal landfills, leading to quick re-dumping following
clean-up initiatives. Railway stations and their immediate surroundings are generally clean, but illegally disposed
waste is common in less visible areas between stations. Larger depots on the busiest railway lines often have
this issue. A recurring problem for the Hungarian road management company is that rest areas are used as
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landfills, especially after weekends when several m3 of waste accumulate. Despite efforts by state intermediate
bodies, there is still a significant amount of waste across the country and along public roads. The distribution of
WasteRadar reports among state bodies indicates that most reports concerning the state belong to the
Hungarian road management company. To visibly reduce illegal dumping along busy roads, it's essential to
ensure that highly affected areas are consistently kept clean.
4. Discussion
The "Let’s Clean Up the Country!" programme has made significant progress in reducing illegal waste, but a
sustainable result can only be achieved by implementing effective penalties for waste management violations
and increasing official oversight of the entire waste management sector. A key principle of the circular economy
is the re-entry of secondary raw materials into multiple production cycles, maximising their productivity. This
concept relies on utilising recycled materials that are suitable for reintroduction into the economy. While there
has been notable advancement in recycling efforts, Hungary is still striving to achieve a substantial economic
breakthrough. An interesting economic criterion to consider for a sector is the proportion of generated waste to
total annual GDP, i.e. the quantity of waste relative to the production of thousand EUR GDP. In 2018, this
indicator ranked second best for Hungary among the Visegrad countries. Over the past fifteen years, Hungary
improved by 55 %, despite being one of the worst polluters in 2004. This progress prompted legislators to
establish new foundations for waste management and initiate a gradual transition to a circular economy model
in Hungary.
Under this model, waste serves as raw material and goes through collection, selection, pre-processing, and
recycling processes aimed at enhancing economic productivity. The entire process should be governed and
monitored by appropriate state regulations. A comprehensive amendment to the Waste Management Act in
Hungary aims to eliminate illegal dumping and ensure proper waste disposal and recycling. The new regulatory
regime promotes the collection, sorting, and recycling of waste in a regulated manner defined by the state. The
objective is to phase out illegal dumping and achieve a qualitative renewal of the economy while protecting the
environment. The state will establish easily accessible local collection points in each municipality and public
recycling sites where citizens can dispose of waste from their households or industrial activities. Those who
engage in illegal waste management or fail to properly carry out their waste management responsibilities will
face severe penalties. Strict controls will be enforced, and penalties will be imposed on individuals involved in
activities such as illegal waste transport, improper performance by public service providers, or unauthorised
collection of waste. This new framework aims to rationalise the development of the waste management sector
and ensure a cleaner and more sustainable future in Hungary.
The foundation of the reform of the Hungarian waste management system is the transition from linear to circular
economy, which entails an expansion of the administrative authority's jurisdiction to supervise the entire product
value chain. The reform focuses not only on local waste management issues but also on the handling of
substantial waste volumes arriving from abroad, particularly those brought by floodwaters into Hungary. A key
aspect of addressing the waste management challenge involves enhancing public awareness and adopting
correct waste collection practices. State funding has facilitated the establishment of accessible local collection
points in every town and village, where residents can freely dispose of their sorted waste.
It has been suggested that high-traffic locations such as shopping centres and transportation hubs should offer
facilities for the free disposal of certain types of waste. The legislative environment has been transformed to
create a unified regulatory framework where sanctions imposed across different legal domains are cumulative,
increasing their deterrent effect. Alongside the tightening of criminal penalties, there have been modifications to
the systems of administrative and minor offence penalties. According to the new criminal legislation, activities
such as conducting waste management without a permit or in volumes exceeding permitted levels—especially
if they endanger human life, health, or the environment—can result in imprisonment for up to 3 y. The
enhancement of administrative penalties mandates regulated waste removal under specific conditions, with
severe financial penalties and the possibility of community service for non-compliance. An international survey
conducted through Hungarian embassies indicates that EU member states employ diverse approaches to
preventing and penalising illegal dumping, underscoring the importance of combining sanctions with preventive
measures.
5. Conclusions
This paper opens a new perspective in support of waste management by presenting a model of illegal dumping.
The proposed model will allow (i) knowledge of the situation and data on illegal dumping in Europe, (ii) a known
set of tools to combat illegal dumping, (iii) a possible way to explore landfills through an application, (iv) to
coordinate the disposal of existing landfills through different public and non-governmental organisations; (v) to
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support waste management models in each Member State. The data and knowledge about unlawful disposal of
waste are insufficient.
To address this issue, several key steps should be taken: (i) Establish a clear definition: A unified legislative
framework within the European Union, while respecting subsidiarity, would provide a single, legally recognised
definition and a consistent approach for data management and collection. (ii) Create a single statistical category:
Building on the previous point, it is important to develop a distinct indicator based on this unified definition. (iii)
Develop a standardised indicator system: This system could assess illegal waste dumping by evaluating various
factors such as waste quantities, costs, and penalties. The Illegal Waste Index could highlight best practices
and identify gaps in waste management across countries, providing useful guidance for improvements.
This paper highlights the need for better methods to track and prevent illegal waste dumping. It proposes a
comprehensive approach to improving waste management across Europe. This includes establishing unified
laws and standard indicators. The goal is to increase data accuracy, streamline enforcement, and encourage
cooperation among European Union countries. It is crucial for individual countries to adapt these
recommendations based on their unique environmental and regulatory situations. This collaborative approach
will help protect the environment and public health from the harm of illegal waste disposal, preserving natural
resources for the future.
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