2. RECYCLING OF PLASTIC WASTE

Plastic waste causes a significant environmental problem worldwide and significantly burdens the waste management system. Plastics are gaining ground worldwide; an increasing proportion of packaging is also made of plastic materials. Plastics look similar on the outside, but their chemical structure and raw materials are very different. Their very diverse composition makes recycling difficult. Their significant environmental impact, microplastics, and their very long decomposition time should encourage us to reuse and/or recycle as much as possible. In the European Union, between 2009 and 2019, the production of plastic waste per person increased by 24%, which is equivalent to an increase of 6.7 kilograms per person. Meanwhile, the volume of recycled plastic increased even faster, by 50%. During this period, the amount of plastic packaging waste also increased significantly in absolute terms. In the EU, around 41% of plastic packaging waste was recycled in 2019; In Hungary, this rate was only 33% (Eurostat 2021). Hungarian municipal waste contained an average of 11.8 percent by weight of plastic components. This value increased to 15.9% in 2012 (Ronkay et al. 2014).