The Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests benefits from investments of 1.2 billion euros through component 3 of the NRRP, dedicated to waste management. Almost 580 million euros of the amount are intended for the construction of more than 560 collection centers with voluntary contribution. Another 260 million euros will finance the installation of over 14,000 digitized ecological islands that will allow the implementation of the “pay for what you throw away” objective, a basic pillar of the circular economy. Moreover, underground and above-ground ecological islands presuppose the installation of orderly and separate containers that will facilitate the increase in the degree of separate collection of waste, claims the Ministry of the Environment.
“Today we are launching the series of eight regional conferences to promote the National Campaign ‘Recycling in Romania’, under the slogan ‘Some things are better separated. So is waste. Collect separately’. The main objective of the campaign is to make all the players on the collection and recycling chain responsible. It is the first time that the Ministry of the Environment, Waters and Forests is carrying out an information and awareness campaign of national scope, broadcast simultaneously in all mass media and on social networks, with a unified message applicable to local public authorities and the population. And it is for the first time in history, when we are allocating funds of 1.2 billion euros to the waste management system in Romania, through NRRP, a substantial amount that will support us in the implementation of projects in the field”, said the Minister of Environment, Water and Forests , Mircea Fechet, quoted by Financialintelligence, during the conference.
The programs are intended for UATs and associations between UATs, such as Intra-Community Development Associations, institutions responsible for ensuring sanitation and, of course, public or private sanitation operators.
“Recycling in Romania” is the first national campaign of this type run by MMAP, through the Environment Fund Administration, and aims to increase the level of information and awareness of the importance of separate collection. The aim is to raise awareness of the importance of separate household waste collection. For their part, the town halls and local authorities directly under the sanitation services must effectively implement the increase in the degree of separate collection and recycling.
From the data provided by the research that was the basis for the initiation of the campaign, it appears that the majority of Romanians do not collect waste separately, in more than two fractions, while almost 90% of respondents said that they are interested in collecting separately.
“We throw away more than 5 million tons of waste annually, 5 million that rot, from which leachate flows, leachate that reaches the soil and groundwater, waste that is found in warehouses, on fields or in forests, on meadows, on the edge the road, anywhere. Romania still has a lot to do to become a state that aligns with European environmental standards. Our objective, of all of us, must be the transformation of Romania into a ‘clean country’, and waste management depends to a large extent on local communities,” said Mihaela Frasineanu, State Counsellor, Prime Minister’s Chancellery.