Post-consumer plastic waste pollution under linear economy mechanisms in Romania

Despite the recent investments in the national integrated waste management infrastructure, Romania is still a landfill based country. The clean-up activities around the country, the uncollected plastic waste flow analysis performed in this paper based on waste related indicators coupled with field observations suggest that capture of plastic waste by formal systems is still inefficient, further leading unsound waste disposal practices. The population without access to waste collection systems generated 488322.25 tons of plastic packaging waste that fed linear economy during the 2008- 2019, accounting of 12 % of all plastic packaging generated in Romania prone to illegal dumping practices. This paper reveals the linear economy capture level of plastic packaging flow during 2008-2019 (57.71%), as potential source for environmental contamination in Romania despite the decreasing trend of uncollected plastic waste in the last years. Freshwater bodies are one of the main disposal route for post-consumer plastics, related to local waste management deficiencies, irresponsible behavior (residents, tourists, economic operators) and emerging of plastic packaging materials including in rural regions. Therefore, the improvement of clean source-separated systems that feed sorting stations is crucial in the next years for reducing the magnitude of plastic pollution leakage into natural environment at local and regional levels.