The three-day event brought international policymakers, lenders and companies together, while Hungarian award winners provided examples of what a viable circular business can look like.
Hosted by the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary (BCSDH) and the Hungarian Circular Economy Platform, the event opened at the Kimpton BEM Hotel on Oct. 5. The following day’s conference at the Hungarian Central Bank’s Lámfalussy Conference Center featured speakers from the United Nations, the OECD, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, commercial banks and development institutions.
At the opening reception, Dutch Ambassador Willem van Ee described the transition as “not only important, but urgent.” The occasion also hosted the Sustainable Tulip Award, presented by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, recognizing Hungarian initiatives that put circular design and resource use into practice.
The scale of Hungary’s corporate challenge is evident in BCSDH research prepared with professional support from Big Four consultancy KPMG. Of 80 responding companies, 75% reported circularity objectives and 64% were already using at least one circular model, but only 21% had a dedicated circular economy strategy. The sample was weighted toward larger, sustainability-engaged businesses and should not be read as a national average.
“Circularity has outgrown its role as a simple sustainability project,” BCSDH managing director Irén Márta said in a statement circulated before the conference, warning that it was becoming “a matter of business survival” amid raw-material exposure, supply risks and competitive pressure.
The opening policy presentations showed why recycling alone is insufficient. Janez Potočnik, co-chair of the United Nations Environment Program’s International Resource Panel, argued that longer product lives and lower absolute material demand matter as much as waste recovery. As reported by economic news portal Portfolio, he suggested a 10% reduction in material footprint by 2035 as a more useful policy direction than relying on a circularity-rate target.
Peter Börkey, the OECD’s circular economy lead, identified fragmented markets, price disadvantages and consumer behavior among the barriers to adoption. WBCSD senior director Quentin Drewell linked resource dependence to costs, supply disruptions and financial risk, pointing to the Global Circularity Protocol as a way to make corporate performance more comparable. The stakes, he warned in the conference presentation reported by Portfolio, could amount to a global “game over.”
The financing panel provided some of the clearest evidence that circular investment has moved beyond pilot projects. During a discussion moderated by Gábor Gyura of the Hungarian Sustainable Investment and Finance Association, speakers from ING, the European Investment Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development addressed the conditions lenders need before committing capital.
The EIB financed more than 150 circular economy projects between 2020 and 2024, representing approximately EUR 5 billion, according to figures presented at the conference. Much of that investment went to less visible infrastructure, including wastewater treatment, waste processing and material collection, rather than headline-grabbing consumer products.
For banks, the investment case still depends on dependable feedstock, workable technology, predictable prices and long-term customers. The EBRD cited a North Macedonian food producer that found ways to turn manufacturing byproducts into new product lines, cutting costs while creating revenue. Conversely, recycled materials often remain more expensive than virgin inputs, and regulatory uncertainty makes projected returns harder to assess.
Another panel, moderated by Holland Circular Hotspot CEO Freek van Eijk, examined the need for cooperation across value chains. Irén Márta, Circular Economy Institute vice president David Greenfield, and circular economy specialist Vojtech Vosecky argued that product design, repair and reuse must come before the last-stage question of recycling. With more than 40 definitions of circularity reportedly in use, a proposed Hungarian pilot involving a global measurement protocol was also discussed, although no completed rollout was announced.
TerraCycle founder and CEO Tom Szaky, who was born in Budapest, gave that business-model debate a practical edge. In his keynote, he said, “The fundamental aim of consumer-goods companies is to increase shareholder value.” Szaky added that “reuse does not generate additional sales,” explaining why voluntary corporate programs can stall if packaging costs rise without a corresponding commercial benefit.
His response is to make reusable packaging more convenient and economically attractive. TerraCycle’s Loop platform has gained its strongest foothold in France, where the system operates in more than 1,000 stores with roughly 450 products. French reuse requirements and dedicated funding have helped build that market; Szaky also described approaches that avoid expensive changes to existing filling lines and logistics.
The October 5 Sustainable Tulip grand prize went to SoundWool, created by designer Apolka Temesi. The business turns discarded Hungarian and regional wool into acoustic panels for offices, studios and other interiors, combining a waste-reduction proposition with a product that has identifiable buyers.
Speaking to Qubit after the award ceremony, Temesi said the recognition was the project’s first business-oriented endorsement and showed that “our product has potential and could interest another country.” Her observation reflected one of the summit’s recurring messages: environmental benefits alone are not enough unless the solution can find a market.
Two special prizes highlighted different approaches. Beyond Packaging, a collaboration involving Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Eszterházy Károly Catholic University and industrial partners, processes heavily degraded PET waste into material suitable for new uses, including 3D printing.
Researcher Katalin Bordácsné Bocz described part of the technique as “a form of reactive processing.” The Szimbiózis Foundation in Miskolc, the other special-prize winner, combines circular activity at its social farm with employment and support for people with disabilities. Additional industry examples ranged from the reuse of high-quality steel scrap to circular food and biomass systems.
The Oct.7 program offered visits to operating facilities, including ProfiKomp and the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ bioeconomy demonstration center, to connect the conference’s arguments with practical processes.
For Hungarian businesses, the clearest takeaway is not that every recycled material is automatically profitable. Instead, investors and customers need a convincing combination of savings, reliable supply, credible measurement, and repeatable demand. Budapest supplied models and potential partners; turning them into durable investment decisions remains the next test.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of October 19, 2026.
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