Romania foots the e-scrap recycling list

Europe – Romania collected and recycled just 15% of its e-scrap in 2012, according to a new study by the United Nations and Interpol. This performance put the country at the bottom of the EU list, behind Greece on 23%, Latvia on 22% and Cyprus on 18%.

At the top of the rankings were Sweden and Norway who respectively collected and recycled 83% and 89% of their e-scrap. These data are set against a backdrop of 9.45 million tonnes of e-scrap generated throughout the EU in 2012. Romania’s general recycling potential is estimated at 600 million tonnes while its overall recycling rate of 4% is way below the 36% EU average.

If Romania doesn’t reach a minimum of 65% e-scrap recycling by 2021, the European Commission has warned that the country could suffer infringement procedures. In April of this year, it sent Romania’s government officials to the European Court of Justice for failing to adopt the EU law on packaging waste.

Romania’s current recycling practices amount to ‘very little’ indeed, laments Giovanni La Via, chairman of the European Parliament’s environment, public health and food safety committee (ENVI). ‘Waste expenses in Romania are lower than in the EU, but it’s not spending that should be increased, but waste needs to be cut down,’ he adds.