How a Small Town in Romania Went Zero Waste to Landfill

Context:

S?lacea is located in the North-West part of Romania, with a population of 3,181 consisting of Hungarian, Romanian and Rroma ethnicities.

Before the implementation of their pioneering door-to-door collection system, S?lacea had less than 1% separate collection and recycling rates.

These low rates were a consequence of both:

• the standard waste collection approach, which used a dual-stream collection system, and
• the low involvement of citizens in the decision making process.

Out of 1,000 households, only 84 (8.4%) sorted their waste, while nationwide there were no incentives in place to encourage separate collection or recycling, with residual waste being collected twice as often as recyclable waste.

Today, S?lacea had less than 1% of waste sent to incineration.

STARTING THE JOURNEY TO ZERO WASTE

S?lacea began their zero waste journey by setting a number of key goals to be achieved by 2020:

? 50% drop in waste generation

? 100% waste sorting

? 90% product repair, reuse and recycling

? Close to 0% landfilling and incineration

And, first, they completely transformed the sorting and separate collection systems.

Initially, the mayor was convinced that the cardboard and paper waste streams were close to nonexistent, because of the preconception that the locals were either burning or reusing cardboard and paper waste.

However, during the initial monitoring stage, the waste operators identified around 8% of cardboard and paper in the waste generated.

Recognizing this, they prioritized paper and cardboard waste collection, changing the new collection system from a three to five stream one.

The street bins and containers were removed and replaced by a complete door-to-door separate collection system on five streams, including bio-waste - the first of its kind for Romania.

IMPACT OF THE NEW COLLECTION SYSTEM

? Total waste generated fell from 106.7 tonnes to 47.93, a drop of 55%.

? Separately collected waste rose from 1% to 61%, 47.21% of which was recyclable packaging and non-packaging waste.

? Waste that was sent to recycling rose from 1% to 40%.

? Rates of local citizen engagement increased from 8.4% to 97%.

MORE MOMENTUM THROUGH TAKEBACK INCENTIVES

In S?lacea, waste prevention was encouraged through the creation of an urban mining centre.

The centre, which was open and advertised to the local community, facilitated the collection, repair, reuse or/ and recycling of several resources, including construction and demolition waste, hazardous waste, furniture, tires, batteries and textiles.

Recognising the need to financially incentivise the new separation system, citizens were given the choice of whether to opt-in or out of a new tax to pay for the local waste management services.

In the previous system, every person paid 5 lei (1€) per month for the waste management services.

With the new system, the citizens who did not agree to join paid a higher tax of 10 lei/month. For those who did join, the tax remained the same as before.

This could be considered a simple, first step, towards a pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) system and was proven to encourage separate collection.

SUCCESSFULLY ENGAGING THE COMMUNITY

A comprehensive four weeks education programme, led by the community leaders and outlined as a compulsory, was implemented before the start of the new collection system.

Communication was essential for the success of the new collection system.

The waste collector used multilingual stickers on all the bins, in all the three languages spoken in the area: Romanian, Hungarian and Gypsy.

Local volunteers, who were trained to answer citizens’ questions on the new system, also distributed separate collection kits containing bins and bags, as well as information materials to guide and assist residents implement the new system.

This open and transparent method of communicating helped build trust within the community and ensure immediate and efficient participation from local residents, witnessing an outstanding increase in citizens’ involvement from 8.4% to 97% in the new five streams collection system.

Citizens initially continued to use large 120 litre black containers for their residual waste, despite this bin being clearly re-labelled with a green sticker for the separate collection of glass.

The habit of throwing the residual waste in a higher volume container was hard to break and people did not feel motivated to use the smaller 40 litre black bin specially designed in the new system for residual waste, which was meant to incentivise the locals to do more sorting and produce less residual waste.

At Cercle X, we work with brands to initiate similar takeback programs across communities. This enhances the amount of recyclable waste collected, engages citizens who are incentivized to participate, and builds brand reputation.

If you want a similar takeback program implemented for your brand, drop us an email: [email protected] , and we'll be happy to have a conversation.

Through a combination of economic incentives to use the smaller bin, continued education and engagement with the community, they broke the habit pattern successfully.

LEADING THE WAY ON BIO-WASTE

One of the most important achievements of S?lacea was the separate door-to-door collection for bio-waste, which is turned into compost through an open-air process and sold as flower fertilizer/soil,

This makes of S?lacea the first and, so far, the only municipality in Romania that composts bio-waste collected through door-to-door collection from almost all of its inhabitants.

CONCLUSION

Despite the reluctance and skepticism that the implementation of a five stream door-to-door separate collection system would work in Eastern Europe, the system has been proved to be extremely successful.

All it takes is dedication and a community that is thinking of a cleaner town rather than for themselves.

At Cercle X, we work with the world's leading brands and governments to channelize waste, and create a 'cercular' economy.

If you want to work with us for either your pre-consumer factory wastes or your post-consumer waste, we are just a deep dive call away. Or drop us an email at [email protected] and we can talk.