“The year 2024 can be a very important year for the transition to a circular economy. At this moment, several projects are implemented or in the process of being implemented, which can significantly increase the degree of correct recovery of packaging.

A project that is currently being implemented in extended producer responsibility is the Clearing House project. Clearing House means a body that ensures the correct financing of the traceability of packaging originating from the municipal flow.

Right now, 13 out of 15 OIREPs in the market, which means over 95% of the market, are working on a proposal that we are confident we will send to the Environment Ministry by Easter. We hope it will be a starting point for the fastest possible implementation of this Clearing House,” Andrei Dinescu, Managing Partner, GreenPoint Management said during Circular Economy Conference organized by Sustainability Today and The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“In Romania, the time has come for a series of projects and one of them is the Eco modulation of the tax for the packaging placed on the market. Eco modulation means the financial stimulation of the use of lightweight packaging, recyclable, biodegradable or reusable, or those with a high content of recycled raw material.

I want to emphasize the fact that the implementation of Eco modulation of the tax can only be done together with recyclers, and here I mean local recyclers who can support this effort.

I’d like to talk about a project that is easy to implement right now. As you notice, we are already looking at fine tuning projects. Extended producer liability in the field of packaging already has a history in Romania. We are approaching 20 years and I think that now we are doing fine-tuning to increase the quality of recovered packaging, to reduce costs.

Also, a trend that we should adopt in Romania is the decrease in the amount of packaging placed on the market for certain products. Thus, we propose for debate a project to ensure correct communication on packaging, which is somehow related to the implementation of Pay-as-you-throw principles.

Regarding the reduction of packaging placed on the market, we propose for analysis the promotion of marketing initiatives in bulk or in the client’s own containers.

We cannot progress without support through public policies. We are working on a Clearing House system that we will pass on to public authorities. Without this legislation in a final form and without the support of the ministry, this project cannot be realized.

It is a good time to look for sustainable alternatives to plastic and that can only happen through funding and why not maybe even tax incentives.”