​In 17 counties of the country, including the city of Bucharest and the county of Ilfov, there are currently blockages in the processing and sorting of waste, and the government wants to solve this situation on Wednesday through an emergency decree.

On the agenda of the meeting of the executive power on Wednesday is the adoption of a draft emergency order on the prompt resolution of problems arising in complex waste management.

• SEE – DRAFT OUG AND FUND NOTE

What are the traffic jams with waste in 17 counties: Bucharest and Ilfov account for 30% of the total volume of municipal waste

The justification of the GEO project refers to the presence of obstacles with waste processing and sorting in 17 districts of the country:

• “According to the requests brought to the attention of the Ministry of Environment, Water Resources and Forests, currently in 17 districts of the country, including the municipality of Bucharest and the district of Ilfov, blockages in the activities of mechanical cleaning (and partial sorting) of waste are reported, it is known that waste, which are generated in the radius of the city of Bucharest and the district of Ilfov, represent approximately 30% of the total amount of municipal waste that is generated in Romania.
• In addition, many cases have been recorded in the country where landfill operators refuse to accept collected waste because it has not previously been treated/sorted as required by law.” it is shown in the document.

How did we get to this situation: what is the local government’s fault

The reason for this is the low level of implementation at the national level of the provisions of the Emergency Government Order No. 92/2021 on the waste disposal regime belongs to local bodies of public administration and Associations of Development between communities (ADI).

They failed to fulfill their obligations to approve the inclusion of the contribution for the circular economy in separate tariffs and the establishment of a special fee for users who receive an individual benefit from the drainage service without concluding a contract with the operator.

This resulted in blockage of financial flows between collection operators, sorting station/treatment plant operators and landfill operators with early termination of some delegation agreements.

The same authorities have delayed the conclusion of contracts for the delegation of management of activities/activities of sorting, processing and/or storage by landfilling of household waste.

• “In particular, the Emergency Government Order No. 133/2022, a transition period of 120 days (from September 30, 2022 to January 28, 2023) was considered, during which administrative-territorial units/subdivisions or, depending on the circumstances, development associations between communities were to ensure the delegation of waste sorting and treatment, and as well as storage of residual waste generated as a result of sorting and processing activities.
• At the same time, the Government’s Emergency Order No. 133/2022, it was expressly prohibited for operators of household waste sorting and treatment stations to carry out such activities in the absence of delegation agreements with administrative-territorial units/subdivisions or, depending on the circumstances, inter-community development associations.
• Until January 28, 2023, many of these waste sorting and recycling stations were operating under contracts with sanitation companies that provided waste sorting and management.” this is also shown in the explanatory note.

The new term for concluding these contracts is December 31, 2023

Thus, the measures proposed by the Government are aimed at changing the deadline by which local government bodies and intercommunal development associations have obligations regarding the sorting, processing and/or storage of municipal waste disposal activities, which are provided by operators only on the basis of an environmental permit for the appointment of contracts for the delegation of management of the relevant activity/activities.

Thus, the transition period of 120 days, regulated by the Government’s Emergency Decree No. 133/2022 (from 09/30/2022 to 01/28/2023) will be changed, the new deadline is 12/31/2023.