The Deposit-Return System (SGR) is now operational and must be allowed to function without burdening it with a backpack when it is not yet of kindergarten age, former Environment Minister and Vice Prime Minister Tanczos Barna said on Tuesday at an event marking two years since the launch of the SGR.
"Thank you very much, first of all, for the patience with which you have stood by us, by the team who worked on this project in 2021-2022. Comparisons are dangerous, whether with coming-of-age, diapers or fatherhood (...) It was a team effort and there were tough discussions at the beginning. We had different visions about how this system should function, about which we didn't really know much in practice. Of course, we saw other countries implementing similar projects. We had studies, we found them in the ministry indeed and work had been done on those studies even before I came to the ministry, but the tough decisions were taken together with producers and retailers when we prepared the Government Decision. I thank them for their patience. There were moments when we decided with forceps. That is how it was, that is how it had to be in order to save time and move past debates which continue even today. I am constantly obsessed with the empty part of the glass. We still have to fill this glass and we must be very careful not to jeopardize, not to endanger what has been built and what works. That is why, returning to the comparison with a child, we shouldn't put a backpack on them when they are not even of kindergarten age. So, the system must be allowed to function," the official said.
He added that Romania can be placed on the European map of packaging waste collection and recycling systems.
The SGR has been in effect since November 30, 2023, from which date Romanians pay a 50-ban deposit when purchasing a bottled drink (water, soft drinks, beer, cider, wine, spirits) from a retailer. After emptying the container, the consumer must return it to one of the collection points organized by retailers and will receive the deposit back on the spot, without needing to show a receipt.
Two years after the launch of the System, return rates for all three types of waste - PET, aluminum, and glass - exceeded 90% in September 2025, for the second consecutive month, according to data recently published by RetuRO, the System's administrator.
In the first nine months of the year (January - September 2025), Romanians returned over four billion deposit containers and RetuRO handed over more than 290,000 tons of materials (PET, aluminum, and glass) to recyclers.
RetuRO Sistem Garantie Returnare SA is a not-for-profit company, created by a consortium of three private shareholders: The Brewers of Romania Association for the Environment (30%), The Association of Soft Drink Producers for Sustainability (30%), The Retailers' Association for the Environment (20%), as well as one public shareholder - the Romanian state, represented by the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests (20%).
Companies, experts and authorities involved in environmental protection in Romania are participating, on Tuesday, in the "PRIA Environment Conference," which marks two years since the launching of the Deposit-Return System (SGR) at national level.
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