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 packaging waste. 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 offers the possibility for the obligors to fulfill the obligations via a recovery coordination organisation.
The EC Directive 94/62/EC was transposed into the national law by Governmental Decree 94/2002 on "packaging and packaging waste" published on May 5, 2002. In full accordance with that decree ÖKO-Pannon, started its official operation as the first Hungarian recovery organization on 1st January 2003. Simultaneously, the Product Charge Law (approved in 1995) stipulated the obligation of tax-payment type product charge for packaging.
The licensees of ÖKO-Pannon are exempted from the product charge payment obligation due to the fulfilment of the prescribed recovery rates. However the exemption does not effect the product charge types "U" and "K" of the so called commercial packaging (the primary packaging of some beverage products and the plastic shopping bags.)
According to the Product Charge Law the recovery organization shall fulfil the following prescriptions. The packaging will be exempted from the product charge if at least 54 percent of the emitted packaging is recovered in 2007. The recycling rate for the total packaging waste must be at least 33 percent. The minimum recycling targets for each material type: paper 60%, glass 21%, plastic 18%, alu 25%, other metals 25%, wood 15%, textile 27%, composite 17%.
