
Edited by: Vanesa Manolachi

The need for circular economy in Bucharest
Circular Economy
Waste management represents the set of waste collection, transport, treatment and disposal activities. They are intended to contribute to obtaining environmental benefits, optimizing the economy and reducing the impact on the health of the population. The main targets are to reduce the impact of waste and increase the rate of resource recovery from waste for reintegration into the economy.
Current guidelines lead waste management towardsthe circular economy. This is the industrial economy that promotes very efficient use of resources to reduce the volume of waste and implicitly pollution. This implies the reduction of the impact on natural resources, the orientation towards the superior exploitation of the resources already existing in the economy. In a circular economy, economic activity contributes to the continuous construction and reconstruction of the overall health of the system.
The European and national framework of the Municipality of Bucharest
European Union Strategy for Circular Economy proposes a target of 55% by 2025, 60% by 2030 and 65% by 2050 of recycled/composted waste. At EU level, the volume of waste produced is estimated at 25 billion tons. The minimum volume of waste in Romania is 272 kg/inhabitant.year. Also, Romania only recycles 14% of the waste produced.
The EU Action Plan for the circular economy establishes 7 categories of essential waste to achieve this goal. These are plastics, textiles, waste electrical and electronic equipment, food, packaging, construction, batteries and end-of-life vehicles. By 2030 it should be possible to reuse all plastic waste and restrict the use of lightweight plastic bags. A ban on single-use plastic items and the intentional addition of microplastics to various products should follow. Also, the introduction of a mandatory minimum content of recycled materials for certain plastic products should be regulated.
Thus, the ambitions of the European Union in the field of waste management are very high and are becoming even higher. In this context, Romania registers significant gaps. It has problems both at the infrastructure level and the lack of interest and involvement of the authorities and the population.
In the municipality of Bucharest, the annual amount of urban waste exceeded the threshold of 1 million tons/year in 2019. The reasons would be the significant increase in the amount of household waste and that which can be assimilated with household waste. Regarding their recycling rate, the values are around 11.2%. The values are very low and very far from the targets set by the E.U. Thus, large amounts of generated and non-recycled waste are disposed of by landfilling.
Waste Management Plan 2020-2025
Waste management is coordinated by the General Council of Bucharest and by the Local Councils of the 6 sectors. They run the services through the departments under their management or outsourced to economic agents active in the field of sanitation.
At the level of the municipality of Bucharest, the 2020-2025 Waste Management Plan was developed.
It also has action priorities:
- Ensuring a new sorting capacity for separately collected recyclable waste,
- Development of capacities for composting green biodegradable waste collected separately,
- Developing existing sorting capacities for separately collected recyclable waste,
- Improving the level of awareness of the population and economic agents in relation to waste management,
- Ensuring the storage capacity of the entire amount of waste that can no longer be recovered,
- Ensuring the energy recovery of the entire amount of rejected residues resulting from the sorting of recyclable waste.
Proposed Measures
Both public authorities, NGOs and the population can take measures to be able to solve the problem of non-recycled waste. So it is necessary to realize demonstration projects for encouraging smart approaches to waste management. These actors need to grow up the level of information and awareness of residents on selective collection and the importance of reuse/recycling. This can happen by providing the necessary support to home owners’ associations to find waste management solutions. Such a solution can even be waste collection in 4 fractions.
Educationalso plays an important role, as it can help reduce the consumption of waste-generating products and services. Citizens need to realize the impact that everyday activities have on waste, thus reducing the amount of unused food.
Although there is a Plan at the level of the municipality of Bucharest, the authorities must provide the residents with an adequate infrastructure for separate waste collection. It also needs support for legislative clarification of proximity composting and promotion of the circular economy at the population level.
The impact of Civil Society in the Bucharest Neighborhoods
It’s obligatory that all the elements (legislative framework, effective projects, citizens’ will) exist cumulatively to be able to improve the current situation. Regarding the will of the citizens, this phenomenon is starting to gain momentum, as different organizations and associations are looking for a solution to this problem.
„Asociația Ecoteca” develops education projects for recycling in schools and faculties, monitoring legislation in the field. It also produces guides on waste management, organizes campaigns to involve citizens in environmental decision-making.
„Asociația Viitor Plus” developed the „Harta Reciclării” as a national, participatory and educational platform. The community contributes to publicizing separate collection sites in the country and provides information on waste reduction/recycling. He also launched the social enterprise “Atelierul de Pânza”, which makes pre-production textile materials, working with people from vulnerable backgrounds.
„Ateliere fără frontiere”combines the circular economy with the social reinsertion economy in 2 of the 3 workshops he developed. These are “EduClick” and “Remesh”. “EduClick” participants collect used IT equipment, refurbish it in the workshop where vulnerable people work, and donate it to schools. Through the “Remesh” program, outdoor advertising materials are transformed into useful objects, working with women from vulnerable backgrounds.
In conclusion, in order to be able to implement the European Union’s Strategy for the Circular Economy, taking some drastic measures is necessary. A first step can be to inform and educate the population about the issues raised. Citizens can initiate different projects, enterprises, associations, thus forcing public authorities to take measures at a higher level. There is still a long way to go, but with the right will and attitude, there may be a chance for success.
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