According to statistics collected by the Ministry of the Interior (MAI), the number of waste shipments arriving at Romania’s borders in the first half of this year is three times higher than last year. More than 2,200 tons of waste were stopped from being imported into the country, News.ro reports.

WastePhoto: Agerpres

In the first half of 2023, Romania’s border police and National Environmental Protection Commissioners detected three times as many batches of waste compared to the same period in 2022, according to statistics centralized at the MAI level. It is about tripling the number of shipments, as well as the amount sent to Romania.

“161 shipments of waste were detected, 3 times more (+107), respectively 2271 tons, 2.9 times more (+1495). In all 161 cases, a preventive measure was applied in the form of a no-pass regime (NPV), the waste is returned to the territory of a neighboring state,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement.

Regarding the waste management activities of the Romanian Police, the data shows that so far this year, 454 crimes have been reported, which is a 6.3% increase (corresponding to 27 more crimes than in the same period last year) and 876 offenses have been applied , which is 2.5 times more (by 528 fines more than for the same period in 2022).

Since the beginning of this year, 4,477 actions in the field of combating illegal waste management have been organized by the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and 4,224 objects have been controlled.

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