Local resource-based local development potentials in changing Hungarian waste management

Abstract

Waste as a local resource is a development opportunity in the hands of resource owners, as waste can be one of the fundaments for bottom-up development at local level. Waste is one of the resources that can be spatially localised or has local impact, and it has many untapped potential uses.

After presenting a local resource-based development approach and the conceptual framework of waste as a resource, the study deals with the use of waste as a local resource from the management side. The study analyses the regulatory and institutional environment that formed the public waste management service in Hungary after 1995, and its impact on municipal waste flows, following a review of international waste management literature.

The recent (general and local) challenges related to waste management are illustrated by the case study of the South-Transdanubian city of Pécs which represents the first results of a series of empirical studies (semi-structured interviews, workshops) conducted with the stakeholders in Pécs.

The research findings show that new policy issues generate new challenges (which ultimately contribute to improving our environment). The new (EU and Hungarian) policy approaches and technological advances mean that waste is becoming increasingly a local resource, and the re-evaluation of former landfills offers additional resource values. A look at the governance of public waste management reveals a centralisation process and the development of rationalised waste collection areas. However, the use of locally available resources has been hampered by the centralisation process in recent years as the centrally distributed secondary raw materials can no longer be utilised as local resources. (The positive effects of the measure are enjoyed by the buyers of secondary raw materials.)

From the point of view of local resource-based local development, the available resources can be mapped at municipal level. However, it is difficult to use them because a number of legal, institutional and administrative obstacles have arisen due to the institutionalisation efforts of recent times. On the whole, it can be concluded that at the municipal level those capable and willing actors on whom better waste management can rely seem to be excluded.