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THE CONDITION OF WASTE MANAGEMENT INROMANIA

Assistant PhD student Lucia-Monica SCORARProfessor PhD Ioan LAZR

Assistant PhD student Diana ZAGAN ZELTERBabe Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca

Abstract:The present article approaches a very important and actual theme andthat is the problem of generating waste in Romania which, on one hand,affects the environment and human health, and on the other hand itreflects the inefficient way of using the natural resources in society.Probably the majority of us have thought or hoped that the naturalresources are inexhaustible, but we can see today that the unwiseexploitation of these resources is threatening our future.Waste management is a difficult and complex problem in Romania whichis far from being solved according to the environment rules of theEuropean Union. The worsening of the waste problem, especially of thedomestic waste is generated by the significant increase of its quantity, aswell as by the inappropriate way of solving different stages of wasteprocessing.

Key words: environmental protection; waste; waste management; reuse,reduce and recycle waste

IntroductionThe environmental problems are

part of the very serious problemsmankind is facing and soon no activityfield from any country will be able toavoid solving them. Mankind is called tocontribute at reducing the impactcaused on nature by its activities, bypromoting sustainable development,which takes into account : economic

development, social welfare andenvironmental protection. Theenvironment represents all the elementsthat surround us on which man leaveshis blueprint most often in a destructiveway, hence the necessity for theintervention of the state bodies in orderto protect and conserve the nature. Wecan easily notice that even where onlyone man lives, he causes changes tothe environment and implicitly creates

waste, especially domestic waste. Thebigger a community, the bigger itsquantity, so that the existence of

uncontrolled accumulated waste wouldcreate major problems that must beurgently and permanently solved.Consequently, they should be managedin such a way as not to become aburden for the community by imposingselective collection, reusing, recyclingand treating it, and finally ecologicalstorage of remaining waste.

Waste management inRomania

On the list of Romanias ecologicalpriorities, waste management is placedon the third place, after water and airpollution.

Adequate waste managementsupposes the following hierarchy ofpriorities, according to the strategy ofthe European Union

Preventing waste generation by

applying clean technologies in theactivities which generate waste(especially in the industrial sector), but


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also in the campaigns for raisingawareness in educational institutionsand private households;

Reducing the quantity of waste byapplying the best technologies in eachactivity field that generates waste;

Valorizing the waste by reusing,material recovery (recycling),energetically recovery (incineration) andbiological recovery (composting);

Final waste elimination byecological storage, in safe conditions

Preventing waste generation, as astrategic element in the European policyfor waste management has become apriority. Acting in this direction, thefollowing results are obtained:

reducing the costs for rawmaterials

reducing the costs for wasteelimination

conserving the natural resources

improving the company imageGenerating, valorizing and

storing waste must be a subject ofinterest for any person, for companiesand public authorities.

The first information aboutgenerating and managing waste inRomania dates from 1991. Starting with1995, The Ministry of Environment andWater Management has owned a database about waste management. Yearly,through the Agencies for EnvironmentProtection there are reporting activities,the data being centralized andprocessed by The National Institute ofResearch and Development for

Environment Protection. Bucharest. Asduring that time there was not asystematic weighing of all the collectedwaste flows, the waste quantities fromthe data base comprise also estimateddata. Since 2005, the data collection forthe data base has been done by usingquestionnaires that are addressed tothe waste generators from industry,mining and agriculture, the sanitationoperators (waste from cities that are

collected and managed), economicagents who recycle waste and the

operators for warehouses andincinerators.

The quality of the data about wastemanagement is greatly influenced by aseries of conditions existing at the levelof the reporting units:

the availability of technicalconditions for recording the waste(mainly the lack of weighing machinesat the waste warehouses);

organizing waste management;

registering the enterprises in theStatistical Register of EconomicOperators;

the competence and theengagement of responsibilities forcompleting the statistical questionnaires.

Generating significant wastequantities without considering thepossibility of recycling them orrecovering the energy, does not complywith the principles of sustainabledevelopment. At the moment, inRomania, there are limited possibilitiesfor sorting and collecting different usefulfractions from the waste, to which wecan add as an important factor, the

limited number of economic agents whoare willing to recycle these sortedmaterials. In order to reduce thenegative impact on the environment forsustainable development, Romaniaintends to reduce the volume of wastewhich is not stored appropriately fromthe estimated quantity of 3.75 milliontones/year to 2.2 million tones/year until2013.

At present, The Ministry of

Environment coordinates thepreparation of 30 projects for integratedwaste management, which will absorbentirely the sum allocated to PrioritaryAxis 2 The development of integratedwaste management systems and therehabilitation of the historicallycontaminated sites. The projects will befinished gradually between 2009-2011and will have an important contributionto the fulfillment of the obligations

Romania has in the waste managementsector. The budget allocated through


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the Operational sectorial ProgrammeEnvironment for the projects referringto integrated waste management has avalue of 1.17 billion euros.

Eco-Rom Ambalaje S.A.represents officially in Romania, starting

15 October 2003, the European Systemfor Package Management Green Point,in this way Romania is joining the other26 states from Europe and Americawhere this system is working. Thelicense was granted to Eco-RomAmbalaje S.A., for Romania, by theEuropean Organization PRO Europe,who owns the rights for the brandGreen Point.

Through the Green Point system,

the economic agents that haveobligations for valorising and recyclingthe package waste, can transfer throughcontract, the responsibility to valoriseand recycle the package waste to Eco-Rom Ambalaje S.A., which closes, at itsturn, partnerships with local authorities,

sanitation and transport companies andthe firms specialized in recycling.

The economic agents who adhereto the Green Point will be able to insertthe Green Point symbol on thepackaging of their products. Thus, the

buyer will know that the manufacturingor importing company is responsiblefrom the social point of view, because itwants that the package of its products,collected from the population inseparate containers, should be recycledor valorised.

Waste generation is the indicatorwhich best illustrates the interactionbetween human activities and theenvironment. Waste generation usually

follows the consumption and productiontrends. For example, waste generation(quantity/inhabitant) increases togetherwith the income level. The increase ineconomic production, but also theinefficient management of resources,lead to the generation of big quantitiesof waste.

Table 1

Indicators for city waste generation in our country

Year City waste(kg/inhabitant x year)

2000 355

2001 341

2002 384

2003 365

2004 378

2005 398

2006 410Media 376

Source: Annual report concerning the environment condition in Romania for theyear 2007

In comparison with the EU states,the quantity of city waste generated inRomania between 2000-2006expressed in kg/inhabitant is situatedunder the EU average 27.

The analysis of the current

situation reflects the condition of thewaste management in Romania and it

is based on viable statistical data. Itleads to the identification of theproblems and to prioritizing, insuringsufficient basis for SWOT analysis(Strengths, Weaknesses,Opportunities, Threats). The SWOT

analysis is a synthesis of the currentsituation in the field of waste


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management and presents the internalfactors on which we have toconcentrate (the strengths) or which

must be annulled (the weaknesses),as well as favorable external factors(opportunities) or unfavorable (threats).

Table 2SWOT analysis for waste management in Romania

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES the elaboration of the NationalStrategy for Waste Management, aswell as the National Plan for WasteManagement;

the elaboration of regional andcounty plans for waste management;

waste management has a complexlegal framework;

the elaboration of guides for the

implementation of suitable systems forwaste management;

the experience acquired by certainlocal authorities in developinginvestment projects financed throughEuropean programmes;

setting up organisations which areoriented towards promoting efficientand lasting solutions for the wastemanagement process;

big waste quantity which isgenerated and uncontrolled storage;

the rate of valorising the usefulfractions is very reduced;

the reduced quality of soil and waterbecause of pollution with waste which isnot stored appropriately;

precarious infrastructure forcollecting, transporting and eliminating

the waste; the limited capacity of the localauthorities to elaborate viable projectproposals;

low level of awareness andresponsibility of the population and theeconomic agents concerning adequatewaste management;

lack of competent staff for wastemanagement activities;

the existence of a big number of

historically polluted sites, as aconsequence of past economicactivities;

low degree of implementation for theenvironment legislation;

the bureaucracy in obtainingfinancing for waste managementprojects.

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

accessing EU funds for improving

the environment quality in Romania; developing tourism in an areawhere there is an efficient wastemanagement system;

attracting foreign investors byimproving the sanitation services;

the advantages offered by thepublic-private partnership in sanitation;

developing long-term investmentprojects in sustainable development

conditions; Developing a viable market for

The pressures exercised bydomestic waste on the quality ofenvironment factors;

Unstable legal framework;

A mentality of indifferenceregarding environmental protection;

High costs in the implementation ofclean technologies and of the bestavailable techniques for wastemanagement;

Irrational exploitation of naturalresources;

Inappropriate use of EU funds; Problems encountered by the small


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recycling waste respectively a marketfor valorising the products resultedfrom waste processing;

Encouraging clean technologies.Which are less polluting;

The possibility of partnerships withother city authorities for wastemanagement;

Promoting the production of energyfrom sources that can be regenerated;

communities regarding the investmentcosts that are to be borne in the wastemanagement projects;

Delays in approving the wastemanagement projects;

Difficulties encountered in

financing income-generating projects; Difficulties in choosing the rightplace for building the wasteinfrastructure;

In order to comply with therequirements of the European Union,Romania will have to take thefollowing measures:

Make serious efforts for

achieving a modern environmentinfrastructure;

Provide quality sanitationservices at reasonable tariffs for all thecitizens, in order to protect the healthof the population and of theenvironment;

Invest in workforce training inthe field of waste management, ascarce segment at the moment;

Valorise at maximum theuseful potential from domestic wasteby developing a waste market, assecondary raw materials;

Create an efficient collection-transport-valorisation-ecologicalstorage network for waste;

Encourage a sustainableconsumption (by promoting eco-products), which means usingefficiently the resources involved and

a reduced impact on the environment;The SWOT analysis confirmsthe fact that implementing anintegrated waste management canhave a significant impact on improvingthe quality of life and of theenvironment in Romania. Theimprovements in the field of wastemanagement in Romania will lead tothe promotion of sustainabledevelopment.

At the level of Romania, thepresent research in the field of waste

management is concentrated onfundamenting the strategies, theaction plans, the strategic planning ofurban systems for waste management.Romanian research in the waste field

is making progress gradually havingthe role to support and fundament theactions of the local and centralauthorities in order to adopt and putinto practice those waste managementsystems which are similar to the mostspread European practices. Thus, atthe level of central authorities, thereare two national research institutessubordinated to the Ministry ofEnvironment (The National of

Research and Development forEnvironment Protection ICIMBucharest and The National Instituteof Research and Development forIndustrial Ecology ECOIND) whichinclude laboratories and specialsections for research in the field oftechnologies for waste management.The role of these research institutes isto fundament scientifically, based onnational statistics and nationalreference data bases, thegovernmental and local adoptedstrategies, as well as to monitor theimplementation of of theengagements taken when signing thetreaty for joining the European Union(through the corresponding monitoringplans).

Conclusions

In our view, successfulimplementation of a sustainable waste


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management system requires theactive involvement of citizens insanitation services by minimizing thequantities of waste generated waste,by supporting the actions of selectivecollection of useful fractions of

household waste and encouragingtheir recovery.

We consider that the presentproblems with which wastemanagement is confronted can besummarized as follows:

The existing storing places areoften placed in sensitive areas (closeto towns, surface or undergroundwaters, recreation areas);

The majority of the currentwarehouses are not operatedcorrespondingly, there isnt a strictquality control and a control of thequantity of waste entering thewarehouse; there arent facilities forthe control of the biogas; thefermentation processes with gas andleach are not controlled;

The fields occupied by wastestorage are considered damaged

grounds, which cannot be used foragricultural purposes;

The collection of domesticwaste from the population is notselective, in general; they reach thewarehouses in a mixed condition, thuslosing part of their useful potential(paper, glass, metals, plastic materials)

The lack of an adequateinfrastructure in this field, but also theabsence of the machines and the

installations for waste processing,insufficient transportation capacities,reduced number of containers forelective collection;

Lack of ecological educationand citizen spirit to be seen at manycitizens who mistake the public spacefor the place where waste can bethrown;

Impressive increase of one-usepackaging in the consumption circuit;

Insufficient involvement of cityhalls in approaching and solving the

sanitation problems along the knownflow: collection-transport-valorisation-storage-reintegration in nature;

At present, the reducedvalorisation of existing wastediscourages the authorities in finding

good and urgent solutions; The high costs of the

implementation of a feasibleintegrated waste managementprogramme;

Lack of interest on the mass-media side for this subject

Starting from the problemscaused by an inefficient wastemanagement, the sustainableapproach to waste management isvital for a community out of severalreasons:

The capacity of the warehousesdecreases continuously, while placingand building new facilities is a difficultand very expensive process;

Many materials which are foundin waste are rare natural resourceswhich must be recovered in order toreduce the impact on the environment

and to increase life quality; The useful materials from the

waste volume can be an opportunity tostart a business;

The majority of waste arerecognized by the EU legislation as animportant source of energy that can beregenerated;

A system which is based onmore than one alternative is more

flexible to economic, technological andlegal changes;

We consider that reaching theobjectives of each direction of theEuropean Union must be based on avery important evolution of selectivewaste collection. Their success isbased mainly on each citizensbehavior, and the efficiency of theinvestment depends on making thepublic aware of the necessity of

selective collection. The first step forthe implementation of a sustainable


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waste management system isrepresented by a change of education,culture and mentality so that waste

would be looked upon first asresources and only then as somethingthat must be removed.

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