The guarantee-return system (SGR) for packaging is intended to cover the collection and recycling of approximately 7 billion PET bottles per year, said the president of the Senate, Nicolae Ciuca, stressing that every citizen, by getting involved in this project, can contribute to a cleaner Romania in terms of the environment.
On Thursday, Nicolae Ciuca attended, alongside the minister of Environment, Mircea Fechet, the event for the implementation of the national guarantee-return system.
The Senate president pointed out that every year Romanians produce approximately 116 kilograms of packaging per capita, of which less than half is recycled.
"We also know from the data that approximately 4.2 tonnes of packaging end up in the Danube every day, which means more than 1,500 tonnes per year, which is a lot. And also, we all saw, where our steps take us, this absolutely unpleasant image with a lot of bottles, PET bottles and other waste that could be recycled," said Ciuca.
He said that, according to European rules on the matter, 77% of PET waste must be collected and recycled by 2025, and by 2027 the percentage should rise to 90%.
He also stressed that the guarantee-return system is an important project for public-private partnership and will also contribute to the creation of new jobs.
"Here we have the state institutions involved, the Ministry of the Environment, we have the entrepreneurial environment, which through its commitment to this project also has a component that provides jobs, if I remember correctly, over 600 jobs will be provided by the end of the year. And, of course, as the project develops, as it consolidates, we will have more jobs. There are, if I'm not mistaken, 16 regional centres across the country and about 80,000 such collection points, each of them designed to ensure collection and recycling," Ciuca said.
In this context, he pointed out that the packaging guarantee-return system implemented in Romania is the second largest European project after the one applied in Germany.
"And, beyond its size, I believe that it is a matter of our conscience, to be able to really ensure that these objectives are functional and are being achieved. I have met with young people, with children, they talk a lot about the environment, about recycling, which means that in the education system, as well as in the family, each of us must have this care to teach our children what it means to have a protective approach towards the environment," said Ciuca.
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