COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT The early warning report for Romania Accompanying the document Report From The Commission To The European Parliament, The Council, The European Economic And Social Committee And The Committee Of The Regions identifying Member States at risk of not meeting the 2025 preparing for re-use and recycling target for municipal waste, the 2025 recycling target for packaging waste and the 2035 municipal waste landfilling reduction target
Date: 2023-06-08
Institutions: Directorate-General for Environment, European Commission
Subjects: EU environmental policy, Romania, application of EU law, carbon neutrality, circular economy, municipal waste, packaging product, prevention of pollution, storage of waste, waste recycling

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 8.6.2023  SWD(2023) 199 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT The early warning report for Romania         Accompanying the document Report From The Commission To The European Parliament, The Council, The European Economic And Social Committee And The Committee Of The Regions   identifying Member States at risk of not meeting the 2025 preparing for re-use and recycling target for municipal waste, the 2025 recycling target for packaging waste and the 2035 municipal waste landfilling reduction target       {COM(2023) 304 final} - {SWD(2023) 175 final} - {SWD(2023) 176 final} - {SWD(2023) 180 final} - {SWD(2023) 181 final} - {SWD(2023) 182 final} - {SWD(2023) 183 final} - {SWD(2023) 184 final} - {SWD(2023) 185 final} - {SWD(2023) 186 final} - {SWD(2023) 187 final} - {SWD(2023) 188 final} - {SWD(2023) 189 final} - {SWD(2023) 195 final} - {SWD(2023) 196 final} - {SWD(2023) 197 final} - {SWD(2023) 198 final} - {SWD(2023) 200 final}  
 
 
1.  Introduction 

The early warning report aims to assist Member States at risk of failing to meet: (i) the 2025 target of 55% for 
the preparing for re-use and the recycling of their municipal waste (this target is set out in Article 11(2)(c) of 
Directive 2008/98/EC); and (ii) the 2025 target of 65% for the recycling of their packaging waste (this target 
is set out in Article 6(1)(f) of Directive 1994/62/EC). It also provides an update on how Member States are 
performing against the 2035 target to send no more than 10% of their municipal waste to landfill (this target 
is set out in Article 5(5) Directive 1999/31/EC).  

This report builds on previous support provided by the Commission to help Member States comply with EU 
law on municipal waste management, including, where relevant, the early warning report from 20181. 

The assessment underpinning the early warning report identified 18 Member States at risk of missing the 2025 
preparing for re-use and recycling target for municipal waste, 10 of which are also at risk of missing the 2025 
recycling target for all packaging waste. 

This assessment is based on a collaborative and transparent process involving the Member States concerned, 
the European Environment Agency , and an in-depth analysis of the most recent policy developments in the 
Member States. This process also involved extensive consultation with the Member State authorities in charge 
of waste management. The possible actions identified during this process are based on existing best practices 
and aim to help Member States meet the 2025 targets, and as such they focus on policy measures which can 
be  taken  in  the  short  term.  These  actions  should  be  seen  as  complementary  to  those  recommended  in  the 
roadmaps  which  were  drawn  up  as  part  of  preceding  compliance-promotion  activities  and  to  those 
recommended in the Environmental Implementation Review2. 

2.  Key findings 

Based on the analysis of collected data and existing policies in the area of waste management, Romania is 
considered to be at risk of missing: (i) the 2025 target of 55% for the preparing for re-use and the recycling of 
its  municipal  waste; and (ii) the  2025 target  to  recycle  65%  of  its  packaging  waste.  The  distance  between 
Romania’s current landfilling rate and the2035 target to landfill no more than 10% of municipal waste is also 
of concern. 

Municipal  waste  generation  in  Romania  is  the  lowest  in  EU,  at  about  half  the  EU  average  in  2020 
(287 kg/person per year compared with 505 kg/person in the EU). Similarly, packaging waste generated in the 
country in 2018 was also well below the EU average (80 kg/person compared with 174 kg/person in the EU). 
However, these seemingly low figures may be an indication that significant quantities of generated waste are 
not reported. 

In  2020,  the  recycling  rate  for  municipal  waste  reported  by  Romania  was  13.7%  (which  is  more  than  40 
percentage points below the 2025 target of 55%), while the landfill rate was 74.3% (more than three times the 
EU  average.  The  general  recycling  trends  in  Romania  are  also  of  concern:  there  has  been  no  significant 
progress in the recycling rate in the last 5 years (it was 13.4% in 2016 and 13.7 % in 2020), while the landfill 
rate has increased by about 5 percentage points from 69.3% to 74.3% in the same period.  

1 An early-warning report was issued for Romania in 2018 (SWD(2018) 423 final). In total, 17 recommendations were 
drafted  within  the  assessment.  According  to  the  Romanian  authorities,  2  of  the  report’s  recommendations  are  now 
considered implemented, and 3 partially implemented. For the other recommendations, answers were either lacking or 
not conclusive. 
2  European  Commission  (2022).  Environmental  Implementation  Review  2022.  COM/2022/438  final.  (https://eur-
lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=comnat%3ACOM_2022_0438_FIN).  

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Romania’s excessively  low composting  and anaerobic  digestion rates are amongst the key reasons for this 
weak performance.  Romania does not have enough capacity for the separate collection and adequate treatment 
of biowaste: it can be estimated that the available capacity for the treatment of separately collected biowaste 
would only be able to treat about 27 % of the generated amount (estimated to be about 1.7 million tonnes). 
Similarly, the country still has no legally binding national quality standards for compost, nor does it have any 
quality-management  system  for  compost  produced  from  separately  collected  biowaste.  The  amount  of 
municipal waste sent to landfill also remains too high. 

In 2018, the overall recycling rate for packaging waste reached 57.9%, which is reasonably close to the 2025 
target of 65%; however, in 2020 the recycling rate dropped to 39.9%. In addition, there are data-quality issues 
regarding packaging waste. For instance, there is a notable discrepancy between the low recycling rate for 
municipal waste and the rather high recycling rates for packaging waste. The datasets on municipal waste and 
packaging waste appear inconsistent, given that a large share of packaging waste is generated by households 
and is thus part of municipal waste. A nationwide composition analysis of municipal waste is still not available, 
so it is currently not possible to cross-check data on packaging waste against data on municipal waste.  

Although Romania has allocated considerable funding to waste infrastructure in recent years, it still needs to 
make significant improvements to bring its waste management into line with the EU waste hierarchy. Some of 
the main challenges facing waste management in the country include: 

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limited  tools  to  implement  central  government  policy  at  local  level  because  of  extensive  local 
autonomy, insufficient institutional collaboration, and a lack of accountability among stakeholders; 
a lack of sufficient infrastructure for the separate collection and treatment of biowaste and packaging; 
data quality issues on packaging waste (there is a significant discrepancy between the low recycling 
rate for municipal waste and high recycling rates for packaging waste).  

3.  Key recommendations 

Among  the  measures  deemed  necessary  to  support  Romania’s  efforts to improve  its  performance  in  waste 
management, three main recommendations are listed below. 

1.  Support preparing for re-use of municipal waste and re-use systems for packaging 
2.  Extend  the  separate  collection  of  waste  across  the  whole  country.  Improve  public  awareness  and 
participation in waste separation and waste prevention. Implement economic instruments such as pay-
as-you-throw,  and  increase  the  landfill  tax  to  both  incentivise  separate  collection  and  minimise 
landfilled waste. 

3.  Further develop waste-treatment infrastructure associated with the higher steps of the waste hierarchy. 
In particular, increase the treatment capacity for biowaste and support home composting. Promote the 
use of biowaste as fertiliser by setting national quality standards for biowaste. 

4.  Improve the data management system in order to present coherent and verifiable data sets. 

4.  Good practices 

The following measures implemented by Romania are considered good practices that could be replicated by 
other Member States to help them achieve the above-mentioned targets. 

-  Establishing a national system for collecting and verifying data on waste – A unified data-collection 
and traceability system called SIATD started operating on 1 January 20233. The system, which had 
originally been piloted for 2 years for the packaging waste stream, will now also incorporate data flows 

3 https://siatd.afm.ro/siatd/.  

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on  electric  and  electronic  equipment  and  batteries.  One  of  the  key  purposes  of  this  system  is  to 
introduce processes that would  make it possible for data on  transactional waste management to be 
reliably verified.  

-  Regional  associations  of  municipalities focused  on  waste  management  –  Romanian  national 
authorities  have  supported  the  set-up  of  development  associations4  consisting  of  virtually  all 
municipalities in each of Romania’s 41 regions. Municipal cooperation of this kind is expected to lead 
to economies of scale and more efficient collection and treatment of municipal waste, including by 
promoting significant investment by EU Structural Funds in large-scale waste-infrastructure assets. 

4 https://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocument/70015.  

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OVERVIEW OF POSSIBLE ACTIONS TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE 

Governance 

1)  Address data quality issues, especially related to generated packaging waste and related recycling 
data. This could be achieved: (i) by setting up a privately managed national clearinghouse authority 
with a special focus on packaging; or (ii) by setting up additional third-party auditing procedures to 
further verify available data in an independent and transparent manner.  

2)  Develop and run implementation programmes for municipalities to help them to organise separate 
collection and improve their recycling performance. To achieve high capture rates and ensure the 
high quality of collected waste, mandatory  objectives or indicators for  separate waste  collection 
should  be  laid  down  by  municipalities. This  could  be  complemented  with  a  system  of  financial 
rewards  or  penalties  for  municipalities  according  to  their  performance.  Information  on  the 
performance of the local collection system could also be made available to the general public to 
raise awareness (e.g. on a website). 

3)  Close and rehabilitate substandard landfills and take action against illegal landfills and fly tipping. 
Increase the enforcement capacity in order to inspect, check and discourage uncontrolled dumping. 
This could be achieved by providing additional resources to the National Environment Guard. 

Prevention 

4)  Take measures to increase re-use and to prevent the generation of non-recyclable municipal waste. 

5)  Implement the planned measures including the measures to reach the 2025 waste prevention targets 
set out in the national waste prevention plan. Promote coordination between central government and 
local government to achieve the EU’s waste-prevention objectives. It should properly monitor the 
implementation of the waste-prevention measures and set aside sufficient budgetary resources for 
this monitoring. 

Separate collection 

6)  Develop, enforce and monitor minimum national service standards for separate waste collection 
(including  biowaste).  This  could  include  specifying,  for  example:  (i)  the  type  and  volume  of 
containers to be used; (ii) the minimum and maximum frequency of collections; and (iii) the type 
of vehicles that can be used for collections. These standards should take into account the type of 
housing stock, climate and seasonality, etc. It should ensure that the necessary infrastructure for 
separate collection is put in place. 

Waste treatment  

7)  Support preparing for re-use of municipal waste and develop waste treatment infrastructure that 
focuses on the higher steps of the waste hierarchy. Firm plans and concrete actions are needed, such 
as supporting home composting and  increasing treatment capacity for biowaste in order to fully 
cover the generated biowaste. This should be accompanied by the introduction of national quality 
standards to produce high-quality compost/digestate.  

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Communication and awareness raising 

8)  Carry  out  awareness-raising  activities  specifically  tailored  to  different  target  groups  (e.g. 
households, commercial waste generators, schoolteachers, and students) to increase participation in 
separate collection.  A  set of  national communication  materials  should  be  developed that:  (i)  are 
addressed  to  the  general  public,  farmers,  and  pupils  for  use  at  local  level;  (ii)  have  clear  and 
consistent messages; and (iii) have a particular focus on biowaste, home composting and the sound 
management of waste (e.g. sorting). 

Extended producer responsibility and economic instruments 

9)  Implement a pay-as-you-throw system for businesses and households to both attain higher capture 
rates  for  recyclable  fractions  and  reduce  residual  waste.  Local  authorities  could  be  supported 
through guidance on how to design incentive mechanisms and how to introduce and learn from pilot 
projects.  

10) Use economic instruments (e.g. further raising landfill taxes to a sufficient magnitude) to incentivise 
waste management focused on the higher steps of the waste hierarchy. This will help to make reuse, 
preparation for reuse, and recycling economically attractive and reduce dependency on landfilling. 
The economic incentive should be designed and sufficiently large to be effective and steer waste 
management up the waste hierarchy.  

11) Stepping up efforts to establish reuse systems for packaging will bring environmental benefits and 

help Member States in complying with the EU packaging recycling targets. 

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