Romania is still far from meeting its 55% recycling target by 2025, with only 12-14% currently subject to selective collection, Environment Minister Mircea Fechet said at the launch of an anti-waste campaign on Tuesday, according to Euractiv.
Feche presented the campaign as well as waste figures at “Recycling in Romania,” a campaign designed to encourage separate waste collection.
The statistics for selective waste collection are “shameful”, Fechesaid said, pointing, in particular, to the substantial funding channelled into sorting infrastructure.
“We don’t have a capacity problem”, said Fechet, noting that Romania recycles waste from other countries, but it is unable to recycle its own.
A considerable portion of recyclable materials ends up in landfills rather than factories, either because of the citizens’ incorrect waste separation practices or mishaps during the transit to recycling facilities.
Mihai Dragan, director of communications at the Environment Ministry, said the launch of the first national campaign was a success. “I guarantee you that it has worked”.
Results from a survey conducted in June 2023 underscore some progress, with 68% of Romanians reporting the separation of glass from household waste, 54% engaging in separate paper collection, and 74% confirming plastic recycling.
Fechet highlights a positive shift compared to 2021, noting an increase in storing for plastic (6%), glass (15%), and paper (10%). Previously, only 13% of Romanians indicated the separation of such waste.
However, according to Ionuț Georgescu, a representative of FEPRA, one of Romania’s leading companies in the recycling and recovery of packaging waste, Romania has “zero chance” of meeting the 2025 target if “it persists to do things like in the last 15 years”.