First Phase of the Győr Macro-region Waste Management Major Project Completed 9 December 2009
The National Development Agency received approval from Brussels on 17 November 2009 for the major project "Setting up a municipal solid waste management system at the site managed by the Győr Macro-regional Waste Management Local Government Association". The first phase of this development, which includes the construction of the dump site and the complex waste treatment plant in Győr-Sashegy, was handed over on 7 December.
The project approved by Brussels is aimed at creating an integrated waste management system in the Central and Western Transdanubian region and introducing a selective waste collection system for recyclable material and biologically decomposing waste materials.
The major project costing a total of 9.5 billion HUF to be implemented with the help of EU funding amounting to 6.5 billion HUF will improve the quality of life of a total of 260,000 residents in 112 settlements of Győr-Moson-Sopron County, Komárom-Esztergom County and Veszprém County by treating an average volume of municipal solid waste of 130,000 tonnes per year. The specific goal of this project relates to preventing the formation of waste and introducing a selective waste collection system in the case of recyclable and biologically decomposing waste materials. A lower volume of waste will be dumped by sorting burnable waste from mixed waste. Moreover, by separating biologically decomposing waste materials, air pollution and health risks will decrease and the size of the area used for dumping waste will also shrink.
The new Waste Treatment Plant that has just been handed over will treat the selective waste and municipal solid waste by using state-of-the-art technology. According to plans, this new waste collection system will fully operate in 112 settlements by 1 March 2010, as an outcome of which the waste gathered will be collected and processed in an environmentally-friendly manner.
Beyond the waste treatment plant that has just been completed, 339 selective waste collection points, 42 waste yards and 2 transfer stations will also be set up within the framework of this project.
This new system will also bring major changes for the population in the waste collection area. Selectively collected packaging materials (plastic, paper, metal, glass) will be further sorted and baled in the modern sorting plant, following which the bales will be placed in the adjacent storage unit, from where they will proceed through to the recycling plants after being temporarily stored in this unit.
The technology used at the plant is much more modern and less deposited waste will be dumped in the environment, since the collected mixed municipal solid waste deposited is only eliminated following pre-treatment with the help of a so-called mechanical biological stabilisation procedure, as an outcome of which the volume of the waste to be deposited at the dump site will decrease to approximately one-third of its original volume.
Waste yards are key elements of this system, at which sites residents are able to deposit free of charge various sorts of household waste and other discarded items, which, due to their quantity, hazardous components or size cannot be deposited in rubbish containers or selective waste collection bins.
The waste collection area covering 112 settlements is subdivided into 3 districts to ensure that waste is also transported in an environmentally-friendly manner. This is why district transfer stations will be set up in Vaszar and Sikátor enabling the transportation of baled waste from the entire area of the project to the Waste Treatment Plant in Győr-Sashegy.
The depositing area in the waste treatment plant, i.e. the waste material storage unit, has been insulated with natural and artificial materials in compliance with relevant legislation, the safe operation of which is ensured by the monitoring well network, as well as the geo-electronic monitoring system complementing the insulating layer. Data generated by the monitoring system will be accessible to the public via the Internet.