Disposable plastic plates and cutlery, straws or q-tips are among the products that will no longer be sold in EU member states from July 3, according to a European directive on limiting the environmental impact of plastics.

In the case of Romania, the EU Directive 2019/904, adopted two years ago by the European Parliament, has not yet been transposed into national legislation.

An Emergency Ordinance in this regard is waiting to be approved by the Government, according to Agerpres.

The Minister of Environment, Tanczos Barna, declared on July 2 that, "theoretically, in a few days we should have had this normative act in force."

"We are talking about an extremely important and urgent issue. We are not in the stage where we could approve the final version, but I understand from colleagues that there have been many discussions, at least inter-institutional. We have to go ahead and finalize the text of the normative act," Barna said.

(Photo: Threerivers11 | Dreamstime.com)

andrei@romania-insider.com