The disposal of waste from cruise ships, restaurant boats, and floating clubs is always problematic, but now Budapest is set to become a positive example in this field for the rest of the world. Finally, removing the waste of Danube boats has become an economically friendly process here, thanks to the waste-collection vessel, called Tersus, now cruising the river to collect garbage on the water’s surface. The number of tourists arriving to Budapest on the Danube has increased significantly in recent times, thus waste collection became an important issue. As FKF (Municipal Public Services Co. Ltd) stated, the services provided on the different kinds of ships generate a large amount of waste, and its disposal around the ports is hard to implement, not to mention that it’s not a pretty sight.
This is why, for the first time in Hungary, the FKF launched a new, waterside waste-collection service in the spirit of sustainable development – it does not interfere with road traffic, and it’s not as noisy as a rumbling garbage truck breaking the morning silence. The waste-collection vessel is a remodeled Dutch warship that can carry 12-16 770-liter containers at a time. These containers are located in the concealed belly of the ship, so guests and passersby will only see an ordinary looking boat without having to view its unsavory cargo. This project not only reduces environmental impacts, but also aims to provide an example for other cities along the Danube – currently, the only other city where the waste of ships is being collected in a similar way is Amsterdam.
