Why Romania Is Importing Waste From Abroad?

You cannot possibly talk about Eastern Europe without talking about the land of the salt mines and the “Dacia” cars- Romania. And generally, when one speaks of Romania, one more often than not, speaks of the Eastern European country’s economic solidity, the abundance of its natural beauty, it’s touristic charms that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world who come to soak in the beauty of its Carpathian mountains.

The famous ‘land of the Dracula’ is a nation that attracts as much as it charms and to this day, has yet to come into the main fold of global tourism. Perhaps, that’s among the reason why Romania’s charming mysticism is still widely unexplored.

Over the years, the steady economy of the country that has been a part of the European Union since 2007, become a major importer of a wide array of products and services, that largely deal with myriad industries.

Of the many items that Romania happens to import are Machinery and Equipment, Textiles and Footwear, Metals and Metal Products, Minerals, Agricultural Products, and Chemicals. So one wonders now why Romania is importing waste from abroad.

Yes, you read that right sans any errors of any kind. To a country that’s already grappling with an existential dilemma surrounding waste, one wonders why Romania is importing waste from abroad?

Where the current scenario stands, then the following can be confirmed positively:

At present, Romania is drowning in waste with most of its landfills already overflowing. Yet, why Romania is importing waste from abroad is beyond so many of its people!

Well, on that count, here’s what one needs to know.

At the present moment, Romania seems to be in a bit of a recycling problem. When contacted recently about the most talked about development in the whole of the country, then the CEO of Green Group Constantin Damov shared some insights:

“We are filling our capacity with 50 percent of total material. And also, with 50 percent of material which is not of Romanian origin. At present, they are coming from all over Europe.”

He noted the importance of importing waste from different parts of the world when asked the following question:

“What might happen to your capacity here, to your factory, if you weren’t importing waste?”

And this may intrigue those who are surprised as to why Romania is importing waste from abroad, in particular.

“It’s pretty simple. We have to shut down 50 percent of our capacities.”

A lot of crisis toward this issue seemingly stems from the fact that the Romanians aren’t exactly very good when it comes to properly disposing their waste. Now, what does this mean?

More and more people end up throwing the waste in the same bins which makes it hard for people on the ground to collect waste. At the end of the day, the waste disposed of is mixed; for instance, there’ll be organic matter in bins where there shouldn’t be any.

New legislation was meant to bring recycling in Romania in lines with the EU standard. But on the contrary, it’s only made things worse.

As a result of this complexity, around 90 percent of Romania’s waste ends up in landfill sites. To make things worse, hundreds of illegal waste dumping sites have emerged recently in different parts of the country. Moreover, there’s a growing appearance of waste in what should be protected wetland areas.