Economic operators in Romania that operate in accordance with national legislation in the field of waste recycling can receive up to 8.4 million euro for the construction of a recycling plant, announced the Minister of the Environment, Waters and Forests, Mircea Fechet.
“We must know that we produce an extremely large amount of garbage, only if we refer to municipal waste. More than 6 million tons end up in landfills every year. Another negative thing refers to the shameful figures for separate waste collection and recycling, for that today Romania manages to send 12-13% of the amount of waste to recycling factories.
“More than 80% of what we produce ends up in landfills, compared to 20 or so percent, the average of the European Union. And these issues that I referred to earlier can be partially remedied, it’s true, and by using the Guarantee-Return System, because the SGR aims to achieve a performance of 65% this year, and starting with the third year of operation, the target we proposed by law is over 90%, a target proven to be feasible by the performance of other guarantee-return systems in Europe. In order to complete this Hour of recycling that we are discussing, we need one more thing, namely the factories that will have to manage the eight billion packages that we aim to collect every year,” said Fechet, quoted by Agerpres.
He added that he wants these extremely important resources to be processed in Romania, not to be exported to other countries, because they will generate jobs, generate investments and opportunities for the business environment.
“From this point of view, we support the private sector and, today, we sent the Minister’s Order to the Official Gazette in which we propose to finance with 220 million euros, i.e. one billion lei, approximately 26 factories recycling that we are going to finance in a percentage that can reach 75%. So 25% of the beneficiary’s capital and 75% of the financing that will be granted by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests, through the Environment Fund Administration, money from PNRR. We will finance projects in a range between 500,000 euros and 8.4 million euros. We are discussing authorized economic operators who carry out at least one of the following categories: treatment of non-hazardous waste or treatment of hazardous waste”, said the minister.
According to the Financing Guide of the “Recycling Factories” program, eligible economic operators must not be companies in difficulty, unable to pay/insolvent, in bankruptcy or liquidation and have no debts to the state budget. Also, companies operating in the fishing and aquaculture sector are not eligible.