Romania pays EUR 1 bln over five years for plastic left unrecycled

“During the period January 1–October 1, 2025, the indicated amount was RON 1,125,859,520. In total, these amounts reached RON 5,055,420,257, or almost EUR 1 billion,” reads the analysis signed by Adrian Teampău, Director of Environmental Taxes and Circular Economy, and Anca Andrei-Cimbru, Manager of Environmental Taxes and Circular Economy at Deloitte Romania.

The authors highlighted the scale of the problem facing Romania’s collection and recycling system, noting that every kilogram of plastic packaging waste that remains unrecycled affects the calculation of the national contribution and, implicitly, increases pressure on the public budget.

Since January 1, 2021, EU member states have paid a contribution to the EU budget calculated on the basis of the quantity of unrecycled plastic packaging waste, at a uniform rate of EUR 0.80 per kilogram, with adjustment mechanisms for certain member states.

On the positive side, Romania has established a functioning deposit-return system for beverage containers, including most PET bottles sold through modern retail outlets.

RetuRO, the administrator of the Deposit-Return System (SGR), Romania’s largest circular economy project, has reported the system’s performance over the first nine months of 2026.

Between January and September 2026, Romanians returned more than 4.1 billion containers through the system, while the collection rate reached 85%. This was approximately three percentage points above the 82% recorded over the same period last year.