ANALYSIS OF THE ROMANIAN PACKAGING WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The aim of this study is to analyse Romanian situation regarding packaging waste generated and to find out how the targets imposed after integration were accomplished, based on data collected and published by Eurostat, as well by other publications. The municipal solid waste collection practice in Romania is based on mixed collection (approximately 96% of waste generated), without or with minor sorting at source. Waste recovery is applied to small percentages and only for certain categories, e.g. packaging waste. Incineration of municipal solid waste is almost lacking as procedure. In 2009, more than 95% of the collected waste has been landfilled. There are still no financial incentives to reduce waste generation. The industry and commercial entities are recycling directly almost 93% of the packaging waste, system managed by ERA (Eco-Rom Ambalaje, Green Dot Company). The financial transfer from the industry through ERA is not enough to compensate the increased costs of recycling. Thus, the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), the fundamental principle of 94/62/EC Directive, is not reached. The local authorities must be able continuously to develop programs for environmental education of the population. It seems that the Romania's targets required by EU Directives related to packaging waste recovery/recycling are really hard to be fulfilled in the next few years.