Rubbish equivalent to the weight of nearly 2,000 cars has accumulated on the country’s motorways over the course of a year

MKIF Magyar Koncessziós Infrastruktúra Fejlesztő Zrt. has been operating 60% of Hungary’s expressways since 1 September 2022, covering 1,273 km. Waste management is also part of its operational remit. The concession company’s 2024 waste management figures were previously reported in reported.

Then

• the volume of waste collected and transported: 2,700 tonnes (of which 2,400 tonnes was household waste, 142 tonnes was car tyres, 85 tonnes was recyclable waste and 49 tonnes was bulky waste);
• the number of illegal waste dumps cleared was 24, and the volume of waste recovered from them was 127 tonnes;
• In 2024, the MKIF Zrt. collected more waste from the main line – which is over 1,200 km long – and its rest areas than the weight of seven fully loaded Boeing 747s.

There was no significant decrease compared with the previous year

The company has now published data for 2025 on its official Facebook page published data for the year 2025.

According to the post, last year the company collected a total of more than 2,340 tonnes of non-hazardous waste from the nearly 1,300-kilometre motorway network and almost 170 rest areas managed by MKIF Zrt. across the country.

This is equivalent to the weight of 1,800–2,000 average passenger cars.

As explained, the volume of waste does not consist solely of litter collected from the roadside: waste – including both hazardous and non-hazardous waste – is also generated during maintenance, construction or accident-related repair work carried out on engineering sections, and the proper management of this waste is of paramount importance in operational processes.

• The most common types of waste collected in 2025:
• municipal waste: over 2,130 tonnes
• bulky waste: nearly 75 tonnes
• Recyclable waste: 70 tonnes
• car tyres: 70 tonnes
• Illegal waste dumping: last year, a total of 29 tonnes of illegally dumped waste was cleared and removed from 22 different sites.

Progress has been made in certain areas

They highlighted that since last autumn, illegal dumping has been halved at locations such as the Szilas service area on the M3 motorway; since then, unauthorised dumping has been prevented on 246 occasions at that site alone.

As they explained, they walk the entire main track three times a year to collect rubbish thrown out of cars.

A shared responsibility for clean roads

Finally, the company would like to remind everyone that cleanliness and sustainability are a shared responsibility! Even a single discarded bottle, a bag thrown out of a car window, or a cigarette butt is one too many. They ask motorists to be part of an environmentally conscious community:

• Please make use of the recycling bins at rest areas: the small bins and recycling containers!
• Please don’t throw anything out of the car window!
• Please report any illegal fly-tipping you see – the council will take action