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Environment Ministry: About half of Romanians do not know that separate waste collection is mandatory.
Approximately half of Romanians do not know that they are required to collect waste separately and say they have not been informed about it, therefore, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests (MMAP) is calling on local authorities to get involved in promoting recycling, pointing out that Romania is one of the last places in the European Union in this regard, told Agerpres.
On Thursday, a regional conference on "Recycling in Romania" will take place in Arad to promote the campaign for separate waste collection, in the presence of representatives of local authorities, the private sector and organisations in the field.
At the conference, the MMAP director of communications, Mihai Dragan, said that "we have one of the lowest recycling rates of municipal waste in the European Union" and that, according to Eurostat, "we stand at 14%".
Dragan said that the ministry conducted a survey last year which showed that 73% of Romanians "are very interested in receiving information in this area and 88% are very interested in separate collection and recycling".
"Without separate collection in every home, we will continue to be ashamed that we are at the bottom of the European Union ranking in this area. Separate collection is the main message of our campaign, but of course this needs to be coupled with the expansion of collection and recycling infrastructure. (...) The aim is that, over time, the behaviour of separating waste will become natural in all families and households in Romania. It should be a reflex acquired by each generation," said the MMAP representative.
He stressed that this campaign is also aimed at local authorities.
"Now we have a unique opportunity. Through the PNRR [the National Recovery and Resilience Mechanism], the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests provides dedicated funds for local public authorities to implement information campaigns and develop the collection infrastructure," said Mihai Dragan.
According to him, 45% of Romanians "have never been informed about the obligation to collect waste separately" and "about half of Romanians said they do not collect waste of any kind separately".
"This is an environmental problem, but also an economic one, because all we are doing is throwing money to the landfill. Waste collected separately, correctly, becomes an important source of income," said the MMAP representative, who added that changes will be seen in Romania after a few years of information campaigns.
"Recycle in Romania" is the first national campaign of this type run by MMAP, through the Administration of the Environment Fund, and aims to raise awareness of the importance of separate waste collection.
The MMAP receives 1.2 billion euros in funding through Component 3 of the PNRR, dedicated to waste management. Of this, more than 580 million euros is earmarked for the construction of more than 560 voluntary collection centres. A further amount of 260 million euros is earmarked for the financing of more than 14,000 digitised eco-islands that will enable the implementation of the "pay for what you throw away" objective.
