Legal Basis
In 2004 Hungary became a member of the European Union. The overall Hungarian legislation is fully harmonized to the environmental directives of the EU such as Directive No. 94/62/EC. on packaging and the detailed rules of treatment and packaging waste management. According to the Directive, the Waste Management Law (Act XLIII of 2000) was adopted as a general regulation which prescribed the take back and recovery obligation for the packer/filler and packaging importer companies. The Law provides the possibility for the obligors to fulfill the obligations via an organization coordinating packaging waste recovery such as ÖKO-Pannon.
The EC Directive 94/62/EC was transposed into the national law by Governmental Decree 94/2002. on packaging and the detailed rules of treatment of packaging waste. In full accordance with the decree, ÖKO-Pannon, started its official operation as the first Hungarian recovery organization on 1st January 2003. Simultaneously, the Product Charge Law (Act LVI of 1995) stipulated the obligation for payment of a tax-type product charge for packaging.
The licence-fee paying partners of ÖKO-Pannon are exempted from the product charge payment due to the fulfilment of the prescribed recovery rates. However, the exemption does not apply to the product charge type "E" of the so-called commercial packaging (primary packaging of certain beverages and the plastic shopping bags).
According to the Product Charge Law, the recovery coordinating organization shall fulfil the following prescriptions: The packaging will be exempted from the product charge payment if at least 53 percent of the emitted packaging is recovered in 2009. The recycling rate for the total packaging waste must be at least 35 percent. The minimum recycling targets for each material type are: paper 60%, glass 25%, plastic 20%, alu 27%, metals 50%, wood 15%, composite 20%.
