Kistarcsa NMC dust incident at ALTEO Circular: what the statements say, and what remains open

The Kistarcsa NMC dust incident took place on 28 October 2026 at the site of ALTEO Circular Kft., the waste management subsidiary of Budapest-listed ALTEO Nyrt., in Kistarcsa, a town just north-east of Budapest. Dust containing NMC cathode material escaped near the external dust separator of the site’s cathode shredding hall. The company reported the event on its Facebook page and in a letter to the mayor of Kistarcsa, who shared it with residents on his own Facebook channel. No one was injured, and the affected technology is shut down pending an investigation. The timing is notable: just one day earlier, ALTEO announced on the Budapest Stock Exchange that the subsidiary had signed a framework contract with a battery manufacturer worth up to HUF 3.8 billion in annual revenue. We looked at what the statements say – and what they leave out.

In short: In the Kistarcsa NMC dust incident, dust containing nickel, manganese and cobalt escaped at ALTEO Circular’s site, which also processes battery waste; according to the company, no one was hurt, there was no off-site impact, and the technology will stay offline until the investigation ends. The amount released, its exact composition and the cause have not been disclosed, while the company had announced a major battery-industry framework contract on the stock exchange only a day before.

What happened at the site on 28 October?

According to the statement published on ALTEO Circular’s Facebook page, dust containing NMC escaped on 28 October 2026 near the external dust separator of the cathode shredding hall at the Kistarcsa site. The company said the event affected the immediate surroundings of the collection bag and the discharge unit.

ALTEO Circular says it took the necessary measures immediately after detection: the released material was cleaned up and the affected area decontaminated. No external intervention – such as a fire brigade or disaster management response – and no further protective measures were needed. The event was reported to the competent authorities.

A detailed investigation is under way, and the affected technology will not operate until it is concluded. Restart can only follow the investigation and the necessary technical and organisational measures, the company says, citing the safety of Kistarcsa residents, its employees and the environment as a top priority.

Hungarian business daily Világgazdaság picked up the story on the evening of 29 October, noting that the company did not disclose how much dust escaped or what its exact composition was.

What is NMC dust, and why does it matter?

NMC stands for nickel-manganese-cobalt, one of the most widely used cathode chemistries in lithium-ion batteries, including many electric vehicle cells. When battery waste is mechanically pre-treated – shredded and ground – it generates fine dust that may contain graphite and other components alongside the cathode material. The intermediate product of this processing chain is known as black mass, from which valuable metals are later recovered by hydrometallurgical refining.

The main risk from such dust is inhalation. Some nickel and cobalt compounds are classified in the EU as carcinogenic or as respiratory sensitisers, which is why strict occupational exposure limits apply. How serious a given release is depends on the quantity, particle size, location and duration of exposure – none of which the statements quantify.

From a technical point of view, the phrase “external dust separator” is a key detail. Our reading is that the separator and its discharge unit are located outside the hall, meaning the dust escaped outdoors on the site rather than inside an enclosed space. The company says the impact was limited to the immediate vicinity of the equipment, which may suggest a small quantity, but an outdoor release makes the publication of measurement data all the more important.

The timing also coincides with a regulatory milestone: from 9 November 2026, the amended EU List of Waste applies, classifying black mass and lithium-based battery waste explicitly as hazardous. Handling and shipping obligations for the sector will therefore tighten within days – a topic we covered in more detail in our analysis of battery raw material recycling.

Two recipients, two texts: the Facebook post and the letter to the mayor

ALTEO Circular communicated through two channels: a public Facebook post and an official letter to the mayor of Kistarcsa, which the mayor published on his Facebook page to inform residents. The two texts say essentially the same thing, but a few differences stand out.

The letter to the mayor is more detailed and, in places, more assertive:

• Location: the letter specifies that the event occurred at building VI of the site; the Facebook post mentions only the cathode shredding hall.
• Off-site impact: the letter states, in bold, that the event affected only the narrow surroundings of the collection bag and discharge unit and that there was no off-site impact. The Facebook post does not contain this explicit claim.
• Follow-up: the letter closes with a promise to provide further information, as needed, on the results of the investigation and the resulting measures.

“No off-site impact” is the single most important claim for residents – which is exactly why it matters what it is based on. If air or soil sampling supports it, publishing that data would be the most effective way to build trust. If it rests on visual inspection, that is relevant information too. The statements are silent on this.

Neither text gives the exact time and duration of the event, an estimate of the quantity released, the names of the authorities notified, the cleaning method used (wet or HEPA-filtered cleaning versus dry sweeping, which can resuspend fine dust), or whether any worker was exposed and received an extraordinary medical check.

A site with a history

The context matters, because the Kistarcsa site has drawn attention several times over the past year. It came into the ALTEO group with the acquisition of the former Éltex Kft. and is now one of the group’s key waste handling bases; it is also home to ALTEO’s deposit return system (DRS) sorting plant, which began trial operation in July and was officially inaugurated in October.

The most serious earlier report came from investigative outlet Átlátszó in April. According to the portal, after inspections in December 2025 and February 2026, the Pest County Government Office fined ALTEO Circular HUF 16.2 million under occupational safety rules for seriously endangering the health of nine workers. The decision reportedly found nickel, cobalt and manganese concentrations above the limits in several work areas, inadequate extraction systems and black powder stored in open drums – in the very hall where cathode shredding takes place.

The same article reported that, under a 2023 permit, heavy-metal-bearing battery waste is also shredded at the site – we examine this permit in detail below.

Residents’ concerns are not new either. In March, Telex reported on uncovered drums stored in the site’s yard that prompted complaints from nearby residents; at the time, both the company and the authority described the storage as compliant. In July, Economx, citing an Átlátszó video report, wrote that the site operates near a residential park, a hospital, a nursery and a kindergarten, and that locals consider a one-off soil measurement insufficient for a site whose activities keep expanding.

For balance: ALTEO has attributed part of the earlier problems to the period before its ownership, and in this case it informed the public quickly, through two channels, and voluntarily shut down the technology. That is more proactive communication than in previous cases – but credibility also requires data.

What does the permit say about cathode shredding?

The site’s current waste management permit was issued by the environmental department of the Pest County Government Office on 23 June 2023 – still to ÉLTEX Kft. – under number PE-06/KTF/26068-15/2023. It is valid until 26 June 2028 and is also available on ALTEO’s website. The document contains several details that help interpret the incident.

The technology. According to the permit, battery waste (waste codes 16 02 16, 16 06 05 and 06 03 15*) is processed in several stages. Material passes through a coarse shredder and a high-speed fine shredder that reduces it to 5–8 mm, then onto a vibrating screen where the fraction below 0.4 mm is already end product, while coarser material goes to a mill. After milling, a fan conveys the material through a pipe into a cyclone, from which it passes via a rotary valve to a second vibrating screen that separates the black powder below 0.4 mm from copper and aluminium foil. The permit describes the end product as a mixture of NMC and graphite, which, after qualification and end-of-waste status, can be used by hydrometallurgical plants.

From an engineering perspective, this is a pneumatically conveyed system handling fine dust, in which the shredders, screen transfers, mill, cyclone and rotary valve are all potential dust sources. Air leaving a cyclone is typically cleaned by a further filter unit. The permit text does not detail the bag-equipped dust separator mentioned in the company’s statements, but engineering logic suggests that the 28 October event occurred at this final dust separation unit – something the investigation will need to confirm.

Waste codes and quantities. Notably, part of the incoming battery waste is listed in the permit under the non-hazardous code 16 06 05 (“other batteries and accumulators”), in line with the previous EU classification of lithium-ion batteries. The permit sets recoverable quantities in aggregated code groups (18,450 tonnes a year for non-hazardous and up to 4,350 tonnes a year for hazardous waste), so the capacity of the battery line cannot be read separately. At most 600 tonnes of hazardous and 4,500 tonnes of non-hazardous waste may be stored on site at any one time. As lithium-based battery waste and black mass become hazardous across the EU from 9 November 2026, the classifications in the permit will presumably need to be aligned with the new rules.

Incident provisions. The permit explicitly addresses emergencies: the waste management authority must be notified within 24 hours by telecommunication and within 48 hours in writing, damage control must begin immediately, and the emergency plan submitted with the permit application must be followed. The conditions also require preventing wind-borne dispersal, preventing air pollution using best available techniques, and ensuring that material handling and loading do not cause air emissions. The company says the authorities were notified; the investigation can assess prevention and damage control against these conditions.

Environmental permit. According to the permit’s reasoning, a preliminary assessment carried out for the site in 2018 concluded that the activity has no significant environmental impact, and since capacities did not change in 2023, no new preliminary assessment was needed. This explains why the site has no separate environmental permit. A professional question can nevertheless be raised: how well does a tonnage-based capacity threshold capture a qualitative change in a site’s activity within unchanged quantitative limits – for example, the addition of a technology producing fine heavy-metal-bearing dust? The permit also states that four point sources operate on site under their own operating permit; whether the dust separator now affected is one of them, and what emission limits and monitoring obligations apply to it, is another open question.

The stock exchange announcement a day earlier: a HUF 3.8 billion framework contract

On 27 October 2026 – one day before the incident – ALTEO Nyrt. published an extraordinary disclosure on the Budapest Stock Exchange. It stated that ALTEO Circular Kft. had signed a waste management framework contract with a market-leading multinational battery manufacturer. The contract is open-ended and, depending on the partner’s product mix and the volume and composition of the resulting waste stream, could enable up to HUF 3.8 billion in annual revenue for the subsidiary.

The disclosure was made under Hungarian capital markets rules on contracts concluded for large orders. A few points are worth keeping in mind:

• The partner and the site are not named. The announcement does not identify the battery manufacturer or which ALTEO Circular site will handle the waste. Nor is it known whether the Kistarcsa technology shut down on 28 October is involved in fulfilling the contract.
• HUF 3.8 billion is an upper bound. The words “up to” and the dependence on volumes indicate a potential maximum, not guaranteed revenue. For scale, it is roughly 3 percent of the ALTEO group’s 2025 revenue of over HUF 125 billion – but a significant item at subsidiary level.
• Financial background. According to ALTEO Circular’s (formerly Éltex) 2025 accounts, the company swung from a 2024 profit to a HUF 832 million loss, and its equity fell from HUF 12.7 billion to below HUF 3 billion; according to Portfolio, ALTEO maintains that due diligence was carried out and that the write-downs relate to the previous owners’ period. Against this background, a long-term battery-industry contract is strategically important for the company.

Together, the two news items frame the real question. Growing waste streams from the battery industry are commercially attractive, and from a circular economy perspective it is desirable for these materials to be processed domestically. But volume growth is only sustainable if the safety and verifiability of treatment capacity keep pace. For investors and residents alike, the company’s greatest asset would be to publish the findings of the Kistarcsa NMC dust incident investigation and the measures taken as openly as it announced the contract.

Kistarcsa NMC dust incident: which questions remain open?

Based on the statements, there are no public answers yet to the following questions:

• How much dust escaped, and what was its exact composition (NMC share, graphite, particle size)?
• When did the event occur, how long did it last, and how was it detected?
• What caused it: a torn bag, overfilling, a connection failure or an error during discharge?
• Was air or soil sampling carried out on the site and at its boundary, and if so, what were the results?
• Is the affected dust separator one of the four point sources listed in the permit, and what do its emission measurements show?
• Which authorities were notified, and did they carry out an on-site inspection?
• Was any worker exposed, and did those affected receive extraordinary biological monitoring?
• What technical changes are required before restart, and who approves them?

ALTEO Circular informed the public about the incident quickly and properly – which is precisely why it matters that these questions also receive public answers once the investigation is complete. That is how the open communication the company began in the first days can become complete for residents, workers and the industry.

Lessons for the battery recycling sector

From a waste management engineering perspective, the discharge unit of a dust separator is a classic weak point: it is where a closed system operating under negative pressure has to be periodically “opened” so the collected dust can be removed. Good practice is well established: contained discharge using continuous liners or docking systems, an enclosed discharge station with local exhaust ventilation, continuous monitoring of filter pressure differential and dust emissions, and wet or HEPA-filtered cleaning instead of dry sweeping. What went wrong in Kistarcsa is for the investigation to establish – but with black mass classified as hazardous waste from 9 November, these measures are no longer extras; they are baseline requirements.

The broader lesson is about trust. Europe’s battery industry, including Hungary’s large cell manufacturing base, can only become truly circular if production waste is processed safely close to where it arises; otherwise the value is captured elsewhere. Yet public acceptance of recycling plants is fragile, and every incident, however small, is tested against that.

An incident in itself does not define a company – how it handles it does. ALTEO Circular communicated quickly and shut down the technology; the next step would be to publish the investigation’s findings and the measurement data. dontwasteit.hu will continue to follow developments.

Kistarcsa NMC dust incident – frequently asked questions

What happened in the Kistarcsa NMC dust incident?

On 28 October 2026, dust containing NMC escaped at ALTEO Circular Kft.’s Kistarcsa site, near the external dust separator of the cathode shredding hall. According to the company, the event affected the immediate surroundings of the collection bag and discharge unit, and no one was injured. The material was cleaned up, authorities were notified, and the technology is offline until the investigation ends.

Is NMC dust dangerous?

NMC dust poses a risk mainly through inhalation. It contains nickel, manganese and cobalt, and some nickel and cobalt compounds are classified in the EU as carcinogenic or as respiratory sensitisers. The actual risk depends on the quantity released, the particle size and the duration of exposure; in the Kistarcsa case, the company has not published any figures on these.

Did the incident have any impact outside the site?

According to the company, no. The letter to the mayor of Kistarcsa explicitly states that the event affected only the narrow surroundings of the collection bag and discharge unit and that there was no off-site impact. However, neither statement explains whether this conclusion is based on measurements or visual inspection, and no measurement data has been published.

What did ALTEO announce on the Budapest Stock Exchange?

On 27 October 2026, one day before the incident, ALTEO Nyrt. announced that ALTEO Circular Kft. had signed an open-ended waste management framework contract with a market-leading multinational battery manufacturer. Depending on the volume and composition of the waste stream, the contract could generate up to HUF 3.8 billion in annual revenue. The announcement names neither the partner nor the treatment site.

When can the shut-down technology in Kistarcsa restart?

According to the company, only after the detailed investigation is closed and the necessary technical and organisational measures are in place. ALTEO Circular has not given a date. It is also unclear what technical changes will be required and whether an authority must approve the restart; the company has promised further information on the investigation’s results as needed.

Were there earlier problems at the Kistarcsa site?

Yes, the site had drawn attention before. According to Átlátszó, in April 2026 the Pest County Government Office fined ALTEO Circular HUF 16.2 million under occupational safety rules after nickel, cobalt and manganese concentrations above the limits were measured in workplace air. Residents also raised concerns in March over drums stored in the yard and in July over the site’s proximity to homes.

Under which permit is cathode shredding carried out in Kistarcsa?

Under waste management permit no. PE-06/KTF/26068-15/2023, issued by the Pest County Government Office on 23 June 2023 and valid until 26 June 2028. The permit describes the shredding and milling of battery waste and the separation of black powder below 0.4 mm containing NMC and graphite. In the event of an incident, it requires notifying the authority within 24 hours and following the emergency plan.

🔗 Official sources and references: 👉

• ALTEO Circular Kft.: Information on the incident at the Kistarcsa site – Facebook page (28 October 2026, in Hungarian)
• ALTEO Circular Kft. letter to the mayor of Kistarcsa, published on the mayor’s Facebook page: the post (in Hungarian)
• ALTEO Nyrt.: Disclosure on ALTEO Circular Kft.’s open-ended waste management framework contract, Budapest Stock Exchange, 27 October 2026 (in Hungarian)
• Világgazdaság: NMC dust released at ALTEO Circular’s Kistarcsa site (29 October 2026, in Hungarian)
• Átlátszó: Carcinogenic substances at the Kistarcsa waste processing plant (21 April 2026, in Hungarian)
• Telex: Drums at the Kistarcsa site (13 March 2026, in Hungarian)
• Economx: Waste treatment site near a residential area in Kistarcsa (31 July 2026, in Hungarian)
• Portfolio: ALTEO responds in the Éltex case (3 June 2026, in Hungarian)
• European Commission: Battery-related waste codes update (5 March 2025)

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