Sharp Minds for a Circular Future.
Efficient. Predictive. Reliable.
We specialize in the legal, operational, and institutional design of custom MSW, EPR, and DRS systems that fill the critical implementation gap—to de-risk your project and guarantee real-world, sustainable results.
Schedule a De-Risking Strategy Session
Beyond Consultation: The Implementation Authority
We are system architects and implementation specialists dedicated to bridging the critical gap between ambitious waste policy and real-world results.
For 25 years, we have observed where projects fail:
Our firm was founded specifically to solve this implementation vacuum. We combine hard-core waste sector experience with legal, operational, and economic system design to create frameworks resilient to weak enforcement, political turnover, and funding constraints.
environmental Lawyer and circular economy consultant
De-risking Complex Environmental Projects
In complex environmental projects, the greatest risk is the implementation gap—where perfect proposals unravel against reality. My career has been dedicated to mastering this challenge from every angle.
I’ve led international projects as Resident Twinning Advisor, shaped national strategy from within state institutions (Hungarian Railways, National Waste Management Agency), and driven sustainability for multinational clients. This 360-degree experience—regulator, operator, insider, and advisor—is why firms like Arthur D. Little, GIZ, and the Blue Planet Climate Foundation engage me for their most intricate assignments.
I specialize in the human element of complex systems: building bridges, forging consensus, and inspiring collaboration. As an engaging facilitator, I unlock collective intelligence to transform theoretical plans into actionable, resilient systems.
This implementation-first philosophy led me to co-found First Development Ltd. We ensure your waste management, EPR, DRS, or circular economy projects are not just designed, but executable, compliant, and built to deliver measurable results.
Environmental & Circular Economy Consultant
I’m an environmental consultant driven by the idea that sustainability should be both strategic and tangible. Over the past twenty years, I’ve worked across ESG strategy, waste management, and the circular economy, helping organizations turn environmental goals into measurable results.
My experience covers EPR and DRS system development, waste data management, and advanced water treatment technologies, combining technical insight with a deep understanding of environmental policy. I enjoy connecting the dots between regulation, technology, and people — translating complex frameworks into practical steps that create real impact.
For me, every collaboration is personal: I value trust, clarity, and long-term partnerships that move businesses toward a more sustainable and responsible future.
Our extensive experience across the full Solid Waste Management lifecycle — including advanced EPR, DRS, MSW, other solid waste streams and landfill systems — is your project’s greatest assurance. We serve the public sector, by designing functional, enforceable systems, and the private sector, by ensuring seamless and competitive compliance within them.
We build the three pillars of functional waste systems — legal, institutional, and economic — grounded in data and built for operations and resilience.
Insight into Failure
We know where systems become dysfunctional—the hidden legal flaws, unsustainable economic models, and institutional gaps that cause projects to stall or collapse.
Best-Practice Tailoring
Our solutions are never generic. We draw on proven global practice, customizing every legal, institutional, and financial component to ensure measurable, lasting delivery.
Our Strategic Focus: Systemic Implementation
Drafting EPR, DRS, and MSW laws that are not only compliant but practically enforceable and economically sound.
Your Result: Compliance certainty and legal stability.
Designing governance frameworks and organizational mandates that drive long-term local ownership and execution.
Your Result: Sustainable funding and operational efficiency.
Guiding producers and corporations through complex EPR/DRS requirements, turning compliance into competitive advantage.
Your Result: Reduced legal risk and maximized material recovery value.
Creating transparent, data-verified financial architectures that define who pays, who controls, and how value circulates.
Your Result: Verified cost control, transparent financial flows, and data-based decision making.
Training governments, PROs, and operators in compliance and execution.
Your Result: Long-term local ownership and sustainability.
The System That Actually Works – When Compliance meets Reality
Extended Producer Responsibility systems often fail where enforcement, financing, data capture or political will are missing or weak. EPR 2.0 — our developed next-generation model — was built to thrive even under such constraints. It starts with a robust, pre-validated foundation that we meticulously tailor to your nation’s specific needs, ensuring it works where others wouldn’t.
Self-Balancing Governance
Enable autonomous producer coordination
Data-Driven Supervision
Integrated transparency mechanisms
Low Administrative Capacity for the State
Function without the need of extensive State resources
Accountability in Low-Capacity Environments
Designed for real-world constraints
EPR 2.0 is fully aligned with EU circular economy targets — a bridge between policy ambition and operational reality.
We are currently seeking implementation and pilot partners. Contact us to explore collaboration or technical development.
Decades of Regional and EU Experience
We have worked on projects financed by the EU, National Agencies, the Swedish EPA, the EBRD, and bilateral donors, delivering legal and institutional frameworks, financial models, and capacity building across Europe and the Western Balkans.
Our collaborations extend beyond the public sector to include private companies, producer organizations, and professional associations, ensuring that every system we design reflects real operational, financial, and market dynamics.
We actively engage with these partners in the development, compliance, and negotiation of new legislation, helping bridge the interests of government, industry, and civil society.
Our experience includes:
“This team is indispensable. We saw firsthand that their expertise covers the full spectrum: unique legal precision and unrivaled operational focus on data integrity. Crucially, their approach to capacity building and stakeholder engagement is peerless. Their events consistently delivered far higher, more active participation than any previous project. They were essential in ensuring that the EPR 2.0 institutional model is not only legally sound but also transparent, measurable, and capable of delivering the real-world compliance our government requires for EU accession. This is the complete partner you need for projects that must succeed.”
Head of Waste Section & Beneficiary Counterpart RTA, Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning,
North Macedonia
“Our relationship with the experts at First Development spans decades. Whenever any waste management or circular transition topic arose, we certainly consulted and involved them. Over the many years, we have worked together on developing sustainability and circular policies, validating circular technologies, and developing and implementing institutional models, business cases, indicator sets.”
managing partner
Horváth & Partners
“Our relationship with this team spans numerous critical projects, from foundational waste market analysis to complex circular economy initiatives in the textile and hospitality sectors. The EPR 2.0 (PBB) model, while our largest collaboration, is just one example of their unique authority. They consistently provide the robust, transparent institutional blueprint necessary for success in – not only -emerging markets. Their insight across Circular Economy, MSW, DRS, and EPR is vital for tailoring solutions that achieve both European compliance, operability and guaranteed environmental outcomes on the ground.”
Operative Director
Blue Planet Climate Foundation
“Dr. Krisztina Wégner is an outstanding environmental lawyer and a highly valued colleague of our Association. Her deep expertise in waste management and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) makes her team one of the most knowledgeable and reliable strategic partners in the field. The company combines legal precision with a practical, solution-oriented mindset. The team has an exceptional ability to translate complex environmental regulations into actionable strategies that not only support compliance and sustainability but guarantee project implementation.”
Managing Director
Hungarian Association of Environmental Enterprises (HAEE)
Most EPR systems fail — not because of bad intentions, but due to weak enforcement, unstable financing, or political inertia.
This free checklist reveals the 10 critical decision points that determine whether your EPR system will actually work in the real world — even under imperfect conditions.
Built on the forward-looking EPR 2.0 framework, it’s fully aligned with EU circular economy targets — finally bridging the gap between policy ambition and operational reality.
Environmental Lawyer
Environmental Economist
info@firstdevelopmentglobal.com
+36 20 970 5661
Based in Budapest, Hungary and Skopje, North Macedonia, operating across Europe, the Western Balkans and globally.
