Description
One of the main reasons that today Romania is on the last place regarding the selective waste collection and recovery is that the population is not involved in public policies concerning waste collection in order to capitalize the waste and therefore, at individual level, they do not understand the importance of such policies. The project aims to lead, through a wide participatory exercise, to advancing viable solutions for improving the enforcement of current policies of selective waste management in Romanian Municipalities, for the achievement of the objectives regarding the education of the public in waste management, set out in the National Waste Management Strategy 2014 – 2020. The project targets to involve a minimum number of 2.500 citizens in different public consultation activities, respectively 40 local NGOs, in activities targeted to improve their capacity of influencing the decision making process, ultimately seeking to generate viable solutions for correcting the dramatic situation of Romania, which doesn’t meet nor 10% of the recycling targets set up by the EC Directive on packaging and packaging waste.
Summary of project results
The project “Sustainable development for local communities through efficiently selective waste collection”, implemented by the Institute for Public Policy (IPP) in partnership with Terra Millennium III and the Habitat League of Tenants led, by a wide exercise of participation and civic involvement, to advancing viable solutions for improving the current policies on collection/recovery of waste in the municipalities of Romania. The project was born as a necessity to provide possible means to fulfil the objectives of the National Waste Management Strategy 2014 - 2020 on training and educating the population in waste management, so that Romania could be able to meet all targets on waste recovery (Directive no. 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste). Thus, during the project, the partners yielded an ample documentation of the current state of selective waste collection at the level of 103 municipalities in the country (the analysis was made from the citizens directly affected by policies of selective collection, as well as local authorities’ perspective). Also, a broad information and awareness campaign was conducted at local level, by organising consultations with local tenants, workshops with local NGOs, press conferences and by creating a dedicated website for identifying and promoting, both online and offline, the most effective solutions for selective waste collection. Through these activities, the project advanced a set of viable solutions concerning the selective waste collection system that supported the objectives of the National Strategy for Waste Management 2014 - 2020 and also engaged civil society in decision-making of local policies. The conclusions of the project were written in an open letter which was sent to the Ministry of Environment, Rivers and Forests. Another action that IPP and its partners undertook regarded changes on Law no. 51/2006 on community services of public utilities, as free competition was mooted. This included a debate with field stakeholders and an outlook sent to committees of the Parliament. Over 200 representatives of owner associations, over 40 NGOs, over 6,000 residents plus media representatives, local authorities, services operators with implications in the field have benefited from the activities of the project.
Summary of bilateral results