Waste In The Circular Economy: Romania In The Eu Context

Currently, the issue of waste is a priority both at the level of the European Union and at the level of many countries of the world. It is even more important as a special emphasis is placed on changing the current economic model with a sustainable one, that of the circular economy. In this context, in this paper we addressed the issue of waste in Romania in close connection with the European Union. The paper includes an overview of the waste situation in Romania, while seeking to determine a synthetic waste indicator, named the aggregate waste indicator (AWI). Based on this, a ranking of the member states of the European Union was made, thus identifying the place occupied by Romania in the field of waste. The calculation of the AWI was done by going through four stages: selecting the necessary indicators and establishing the time period, normalizing the statistical data, aggregating the indicators and calculating the AWI. The ranking for the 4 selected years did not include all the state members. The lack of statistical data for certain states led us to exclude them from the calculations. If in the first three years Romania was in the second part of the ranking, in the last year it managed to position itself on the 12th place. The situation is explained by the low recycling rates of waste in Romania. However, Romania recorded good values compared to the European average in terms of waste generated. The ranking highlighted the fact that the first position went to Austria (in the first three years), respectively to Lithuania. Estonia has consistently been in last place. It should also be noted that some states have either risen in the rankings or fallen.