Raul Pop, ECOTECA: “We do not have a leadership on the circular economy in Romania”

“The circular economy takes place on coordinates related to environmental policies, economic policies, financial policies, social protection policies. It is a topic that does not yet exist even in the attention of the ministry, which, in theory, should be in charge of leadership in this field. This is our elephant in the room. We do not have a leadership on the circular economy in Romania. We are on our own. We are in a situation where the concepts of big politics are starting to turn into tools and the department for sustainable development is commendable,” Raul Pop, Waste Management Expert, ECOTECA said during Circular Economy Conference organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“In 2018, the circular economy package appeared. We implemented it in September 2021, but some rules are still missing.

Romania has failed to meet even a deadline in terms of sustainable development goals. I hope that PNRR will be that pressure force that will help us speed up some processes because we are far behind. There is no European ranking in which Romania is not on the last places.

After delaying the implementation of the first edition of the circular economy package, the new package came out just these days. Romania will probably need 2-3 years to implement it even now.

Among the most important pillars in the new package are circularity and ecodesign, which do not exist in Romania. The new package also talks about consumer power and the right to repair. The Coalition for the Circular Economy has tried to bring these things up for discussion countless times in the last 4 years, but to no avail.

We have come to the point where we no longer want the state to help us, but at least not to confuse us. We want the state to have an approach at least in line with European trends and not to be in the opposite direction.

The discussion on recycling and the circular economy is primarily about us and what we can do now, before we discuss future generations.”

Full recording of the conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oonbexyNmcw&t=9905s