Local sanitation companies consider that the emergency ordinance on landfilling will produce chaos, because the Government wants to transfer the tax from the polluter, which is the citizen, to the transporter, said Radu Merica, general director of Ecological Recovery and Recycling (RER), reports News.ro.

The bill introduces a penalty tax of RON 80 (EUR 17.8) per ton of waste dumped at the landfill. The Government wants to make the sanitation companies responsible of recycling, instead of addressing the polluters, namely the citizens, said Merica. Sanitation companies are only responsible for the waste transport, he added.

Radu Merica argued that the European Union provides that the waste generator, namely the citizen, is the one who pays. “The cost of waste is the lowest, if compared to other utilities such as water and electricity," he said.

If the tax amounts to RON 80 per ton of waste, and a Romanian produces 250 kg of waste year, each person would need to pay some RON 20 per year. In this situation, the tax would be completely transferred to the citizen, he added.

The Environment Minister announced yesterday that it would postpone by one week the adoption of the emergency ordinance that introduces the tax of RON 80, so the opinions of all the stakeholders can be taken into account.

editor@romania-insider.com