The Romanian Government has approved an Action Plan promoting the Circular Economy as part of the National Strategy for the Circular Economy (NSCE). The action plan sets out a national vision for speeding up the transition to a circular economy, with measures geared to the nine economic sectors with the greatest potential for circularity in Romania's economy: agriculture and forestry; automotive; construction; food and beverages; packaging; textiles; electrical and electronic equipment; waste; water; wastewater.
The action plan has a cross-sectoral strand including promotion activities and a monitoring platform. It also stipulates 52 priority measures scheduled to be rolled out between 2024 and 2032.
The Romanian Strategy for the Circular Economy (NSCE) is a roadmap for accelerating Romania's transition from a linear to a circular economic model. The implementation of the Action Plan (to be adopted in September 2023) will provide a framework for this transition. The strategy gives an overview of the fourteen economic sectors, and identifies the following as having the greatest circular potential:
agriculture and forestry
automotive sector
construction
consumer goods (food and beverages)
packaging (glass, paper, plastic materials etc.)
textiles
electrical and electronic equipment.
The overall objective of the NSCE is closely linked to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda.
remesh is a socio-professional business workshop with an environmental impact. Most of its employees are women from disadvantaged background. The workshop is also providing a circular economy business model as they reuse advertising banners and meshes to make new products that are fashionable but sustainable.
Under the framework of the INSIGHT project, a Blueprint has been developed to provide specific recommendations on how to promote the application of Industrial Symbiosis and its facilitation to various stakeholders, as well as a roadmap of how the organisations are expected to apply the IS principles, by making use of educational specific inputs and resources.
SIGUREC was the most advanced household waste collection service operating in Romania until March 2020. It was a broad initiative, implemented following an official agreement between private companies and public authorities.
There are not many eco-friendly products on the Romanian construction market, so there was definitely a niche in the thermal insulation market. LanaTerm uses sheep's wool to create thermal insulation for buildings.
Rombat is the largest producer of car batteries in Romania. Since 2005, the company has been collecting vehicle batteries to extract the lead they contain, recycle them and manufacture new batteries. The batteries are processed at the 3.7 ha Rebat facility in Copșa Mică.
ecoHORNET, a Romanian SME, has developed a recycling station that uses pyrolysis technology to transform industrial biomass, household waste and sewage sludge into bio-gas, bio-oil and biochar in addition to creating thermal energy for hot water and air generators.