Bucharest City Hall has project to implement "zero waste" concept in historic downtown

Selective collection of waste, withdrawing terraces every morning and obligatory arranging store windows are some of the measures included in a project to have the historic downtown of Bucharest sanitized, cleaned and cosmetized, to be discussed at the May 4 meeting of the General Council of the Bucharest Municipality. 

According to this project, the legal persons who carry out their activity in spaces used otherwise than as homes in the historic downtown will be obligated to selectively collect their waste in plastic bags, by paper, plastic, PETs, aluminum cans, glass and wet waste (biodegradable and food waste). 

The plastic bags will be provided for a charge by the sanitation operator. 

The legal persons will also have the obligation to enter a contract for waste collection with the public sanitation provider in this area of the city. 

The public sanitation provider will collect the waste based on the following schedule: on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays the paper and cardboard, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays the plastic, PETs and aluminum cans, glass, and daily the biodegradable and food waste. 

The same public sanitation operator will empty the street trash baskets daily and once a week it will also wash them. 

The terraces will remain open until maximum 4 am, so that the public sanitation operator to be able between 4 and 10 am to sweep and wash the streets. Thus, the terraces will be stored on a maximum 1 meter from the building front after they are closed. 

Moreover, the owners/managers of the terraces and the other spaces that are not used as homes in the historic downtown will have the following obligations: to have trash baskets placed at the entry into the building, with two compartments (one for dried and the other one for wet waste) and to daily wash (except for the period during which day temperatures go down below 10 degrees Celsius) the sidewalk in front of their building, between 10 and 10.30 am, and to have the snow removed during winter time, to wash the store windows and arrange them accordingly, to arrange the store windows during the winter holiday season and to provide containers for collecting the waste oil and to hand them over to the recyclers. 

The public sanitation operator will have the obligation to report to the Bucharest City Hall the quantities of waste collected per economic operator and how this waste was capitalized on. 

The project also stipulates that individuals with their domicile in the historic downtown will also have the obligation to collect their domestic waste in plastic bags, by categories: paper, plastic, PETs, aluminum cans, glass, while the biodegradable and food waste will be collected in the eurobins. 

The water company Apa Nova will have to clean and waste the channels and drains at least once a month during May-October and once every three months during November-April. 

Owners/managers of unused/derelict commercial spaces that are located at the ground floor of the buildings will have the obligation to maintain the windows and facade clean. 

A specialist report shows that one of the main purposes of this regulation is to implement the "zero waste" concept, which is meant as a model of good practices for other areas of the city too. it is also mentioned that in the historic downtown, usually full of tourists, the sanitation contracts are concluded with many operators, which causes the area to be packed with heavy garbage trucks, which contributes to the deterioration of the carriageway. AGERPRES .