Hungary’s bottle recycling system clogs up as it struggles to meet EU green target

A number of issues that popped up during the first few months of a new plastic bottle recycling system made it unpopular in Hungary, resulting in overflowing bins, long queues and many disappointed consumers.

About 3.5 million bottles are thrown into the machines daily, far more than the planned capacity. For each empty drink container returned, consumers should be refunded 0.13 cents.

“Once we came with a lot of bags, but the machines didn’t work. Then we went to another one, and that was bad too. Finally, we took the rubbish home,” Fruzsina, a Budapest resident, said.

Other problems include the machine not recognising bottles. The company in charge, MOL MOHU, is being blamed for the country’s lack of recycling points and has admitted that the system needs a rethink.

Hungary has one year left to reach the EU target of nearly 6.5 million recycled bottles per day.

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