Calculating the damage to the environment and to the local budget one year after the closure of one of the largest waste sorting stations around Bucharest

Considered one of the 3 large mechano-biological sorting and treatment stations around Bucharest in 2023, with over 17 years of experience and a team of approximately 250 employees, the 3R Green company managed to manage about 16,000 tons of waste every month, including mixed municipal waste, street, bulky waste, mixed packaging, waste from electrical and electronic equipment.

With a diversion rate from landfill through recycling and waste recovery of over 60%3R Green fulfilled its mission to transform sorted and treated waste into reusable resources, to reintroduce them into the economy, as secondary raw materials, according to European municipal waste management policies. Having delegations of the sanitation service (collection, transport, sorting, treatment) with over 20 territorial administrative units, of which 18 only from Ilfov county, serving over 100,000 citizens, managing 16% of waste in the Bucharest – Ilfov region, or respectively, 30% of the waste generated by the citizens of Ilfov county.

As a result of the suspension of the activity abusively ordered by DSP Ilfov in October 2024, as well as by the Decision of the Local Council of the city of Popești-Leordeni, directed against the operation of the workplace, 220 employees were laid off at the beginning of 2025.

The suspension of the activity brought damage to the local and consolidated state budgets, amounting to over 65 million lei, this amount consisting of:

• 150,000 to x 160 lei/to circular economy tax,
• 220 employees x 3000 lei x 12 months taxes, tax and insurance
• 150,000 to x 202 lei/to Ecosud tariff – for burying waste (landfill tax),
• 80,000to x 50 lei/to AFM penalties (for non-fulfillment of indicators by UAT)

Collection rates in UATs in Ilfov county, where SC 3R Green had collection, sorting and treatment contracts increased by over 70% at the beginning of 2025 (from 17.5 lei/person to 29 lei/person).

Quantities of recyclable waste have practically disappeared from the sorting activity. For example, in sector 1, between January and October 2024, 3,000,000 kg of recyclable waste was reported, obtained by sorting the dry fraction in the 3R Green sorting station.

There is the legitimate question, which the mayor's office of Sector 1 Bucharest should ask itself, where did the quantities of recyclable waste disappear from November 2024, since the flow of mixed municipal waste was diverted to the Ecosud landfill, Vidra?

What happened to the amount of recyclable waste removed from sorting? Was it no longer generated by the population or was it simply buried by a lot of money?

We are the only European country that encourages landfilling

Starting in November 2024, approximately 160,000 tons of waste went directly to Vidra, Bucharest's landfill, untreated, of which unrecovered recyclable waste reached somewhere around 18,000 tons. These amounts of waste come from Bucharest Sector 1, Sector 6 and Ilfov. The percentage of recyclable waste recovered is decreasing compared to previous years.

According to the latest legislative obligations, Romania has the obligation to landfill a maximum of 10% of the waste generated by the population by 2035. At the moment, over 86% of the waste generated by Bucharest and Ilfov is directly deposited in the Vidra ecological deposit.

Waste management in Romania involves the same primitive storage methods, on some hills full of garbage, which generate, through slow degradation under the open sky, substances that are among the most dangerous for the environment and for people's health. The latest drone footage shows lakes of leachate forming from these toxic mountains. The amount of waste that reached the landfill in 2025 is statistically higher than in 2024, the recycling percentage being lower than in the previous year.

It is clear that this government does not want an environmental policy of European standards, they are not interested in managing the local or national budget, they do not protect the principles of the circular economy and they support the monopoly of landfills at the expense of companies that can help the economic development of the region and a circular economy.

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