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The event took place on December 5 and gathered several prominent figures from environmental public institutions and the private sector. The guests were invited with a letter written in a playful style that harkened back to the previous era. It began “Dear Comrade, it is of utmost importance for the advancement of our multilateral developed socialist country that environmentalist ideology be embraced by working class people.” The Romania’s Nature programme, which is the first in Romania to develop alternative funding mechanisms for the environmental non-governmental organisation (NGO) sector, attracted EUR 50,000 from ECOROM Ambalaje SA for its first year of operation. This support was then distributed to five NGOs in Timisoara, Piatra Neamt, Tusnad, Braila, and Sighetul Marmatiei, in the form of grants and technical support for project management and environmental communication. The recipient NGOs were selected through a competitive call for proposals for the establishment of sorted collection schemes in Romanian cities and tourist areas, providing ECOROM with the environmental awareness needed to attain packaging waste recovery targets in accordance with EU Directive EEC/ 12/ 2004. ECOROM is a non-profit organisation established by Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, TetraPack and other large companies, which are responsible for the largest share of packaged products on the country’s market. Its primary goal is to increase the recovery and recycling of packaging wastes. The event was made possible through efforts by Oana Penu, project manager at REC Romania, and by the unique environmental engagement of journalists from the satirical newspaper Academia Catavencu.
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Showing
up at a recycling centre in Sfantul Gheorghe Square in Romania and equipped
with reams of used paper and a minimum of five used PET bottles are Minister
of Environment and Water Management Sulfina Barbu and Minister of Agriculture,
Forests and Rural Development Gheorghe Flutur. They and other honoured
guests were greeted by representatives from the Romanian country office
of the Regional Environmental Center (REC) and Save the Danube and Delta
Association of Catavencu Academy (ASDD-AC). As organisers of the official
launch ceremony for Romania’s Nature, a corporate social responsibility
programme, REC Romania and ASDD-AC selected the location for its poorly
managed operation and appearance, which have remained virtually unchanged
since the communist era.