Short considerations regarding the Romanian deposit return system - “How imperfect but perfectible” the system really is now?!

Abstract

On 30 November 2023, a historic moment in Romania was marked, being officially launched the Deposit Return System (DRS - called in Romanian `sistemul de garantie returnare` and abbreviated `SGR`). This represents a huge step towards a greener and a more sustainable future of Romania. The deposit return system is an important component of the circular economy, and through this implementation, Romania must attain the recycling objectives of the European Union and to be clean. On short, through this deposit return system, consumers and end-users will pay a guarantee of 0.50 RON (i.e. ten euro cents) when they purchase from a retailer any product from certain categories of beverages (i.e. water, soft drinks, beer, cider, wine or spirits), in primary non-refillable glass, plastic or metal packaging, with volumes between 0.1 l and 3 l inclusive. For the ease of identification, the products included in the DRS are marked with the packaging with guarantee symbol, as shown below. In this study we want to present the main legal provisions applicable to DRS, what is the current status of the DRS implementation in Romania, after less than two months of application, and the visible challenges of this system. But several questions appear in our mind? How is intended the DRS to work? Was Romania ready, on 30 November 2023, for the operation of the DRS, especially that it is supposed to collect more than 7 billion recipients at the national level? Did Romania manage to put in place a functioning operating system? Were all stakeholders involved in the DRS ready to take their positions in the system? All of these questions will be answered in this present study.