New rules regarding the import of second-hand products, with fines of up to 100,000 lei. “Romania is not a garbage dump”

The Ministries of the Environment and the Economy have co-initiated an emergency ordinance project that establishes “a rigorous legislative framework” regarding the import of second-hand products, according to the announcement made on Friday by Minister Diana Buzoianu.

The project, the Minister of the Environment said on Friday, in a post on Facebook, establishes that “no clothes, no furniture, no equipment” will enter the Romanian market without being cleaned, disinfected and certified in advance by an authorized operator.

If the ordinance is passed, no used tire will be able to be sold without meeting clear technical road safety standards.

At the same time, according to Diana Buzoianu, “any dangerous product” detected at the border or on the market will be returned “immediately to the country of origin, at the sole expense of the guilty economic operator”.

“The introduction of used products into Romania for disposal or final storage is prohibited by law and constitutes a crime,” is another measure provided for in the draft, according to the minister.

Fines of up to 100,000 lei

Diana Buzoianu said that the violation of the rules could be sanctioned with “fines of up to 100,000 lei and a criminal case”.

“Real second-hand products will still be able to enter Romania. But waste disguised as second-hand products must be stopped at the border, otherwise they end up poisoning us all,” added the minister.

She claims that, “for too many years, our country has been treated as a convenient destination for dangerous or unfit for consumption products”, which entered Romania “with the promise that they could be used: unsanitized clothes, discarded tires, defective electrical equipment”.