2.6 mln tonnes of waste packaging recycled in ten years, Eco-Rom Ambalaje announces

In ten years of existence, Eco-Rom Ambalaje has managed to recycle approximately 2.6 million tons of packaging waste, meaning that they saved 5.2 million tons of natural resources such as crude oil, wood, sand bauxite and iron ore.

Eco-Rom Ambalaje started in 2004 with 81 companies in its portfolio that had risen to 2.849 members by late 2013 – representing 20 percent of paid labor force in Romania in the waste management domain. Moreover, the company is present in more than 450 localities of Romania, in majority cities.

“Nowadays, 9 out of 10 households know what selective collection means and 3 out of 10 citizens actually separate waste of packaging”, explained Sorin Cristian Popescu, general director of Eco-Rom Ambalaje, in the press conference.

This model enabled Romania to meet its packaging waste management obligations year after year so that, presently, we manage to recycle 55% of the entire quantity of packaging waste introduced to the domestic market. Eco-Rom Ambalaje fulfills 72 percent of this obligation, says the latest data released by the National Environment Protection Agency, published in 2011.

Eco-Rom Ambalaje offers a system integrated backed by RON 280 mln from packaged goods producers and importers for the Romanian market, and 80 percent of the sum is redirected annually to those companies that provide waste management and also increasing the performances of the separate collection system of packaging waste in Romania by streamlining partnerships with responsible actors, being transparent, improving data, and through information and awareness raising campaigns regarding the importance of separate waste collection as a responsibility and an obligation. Also, the company invested RON 21.943.225 in infrastructure only in 2013.

2.6 million tons of recycled packaging waste is divided into1.1 million tons of recycled paper-cardboard, the quantity of recycled plastic is more than 560 thousand tons and approximately 500,000 tons of glass waste was recycled in 10 years, thus saving more than 600,000 tons of raw materials (sand, feldspat, soda). Furthermore, the number of selective containers is 17.982 in the present, whereas they started with only 388 containers in 2006.

Oana Vasiliu