The Government changes the law of packaging and managing the packaging waste

According to an emergency ordinance promoted by the Government, the operators are accountable for the waste generated by their primary, secondary and tertiary packaging, excepting the waste generated by packaging at the sales point of their products. For these, the operators that overpack individually packed products in order to sell or redistribute it, are responsible.  Also, the operators that lease under any form, with professional title, the packaging, are responsible for the waste.

"Operators placing on the market packaged products are responsible for the waste generated by primary, secondary and tertiary packaging, excluding packaging outlets which are used for packaging at the point of sale, for the products that they introduce national market. Operators who overpackage products individually packaged for resale / redistribution are responsible for the waste generated by secondary and tertiary packaging they place on the market”, says the text of the ordinance.

The responsibilities can be transferred by contract to another economic operator authorized by the central public authority for environment protection. In the situation where the operator that undertakes the responsibility does not complete its attribution, its license will be suspended from 1^stof January of the following year to that where the observation had been made, if the empowered employees within the Administration for Environment Fund notice it has not fulfilled its obligation for 2 years in a row.

The motivation of the ordinance states that all the organizations for responsibility transfer undergo criminal investigations for fraud, and the companies that transferred their responsibility to them cannot meet up to their targets. The initiators suggest, instead, an individual regime of recycling targets.

The final comments on the motivation note show how not fulfilling the objectives in managing packaging waste will determine missing the objectives assumed by Romania towards the European Commission and opens the possibility of an infringement.