94% of European Union citizens and
\n87% of Romania’s citizens believe environmental protection is important,
\naccording to an opinion poll conducted last December. The problems Romanians
\nare most concerned about are air pollution, the pollution of rivers, lakes and
\nunderground water sources, pollution resulting from farming activities, soil
\ndegradation, as well as the growing amount of waste. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Paradoxically, although Romania is a
\ncountry suffocated by waste, it is also an importer of waste. A BBC crew even came
\nto Romania last autumn to look for an explanation. They found out, for example,
\nthat Romanian recycling firms handling the reprocessing of local waste risk
\nbeing deprived of their raw material in the absence of selective waste. This is
\nwhy they import waste from countries like the UK. The conclusion of the BBC
\nreport was that the national legislation should regulate the recycling activity
\nand bring it in line with the EU standards, but things don’t seem to be going
\nwell. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the Bucharest
\nprosecutors charged three persons and a company for disposing of hundreds of
\ntonnes of waste by throwing it into the river Arges or burying it under gravel
\npits in Ilfov and Giurgiu counties, close to Bucharest, thus causing
\nsignificant damage to the environment. The police have also conducted searches
\nin Bucharest, Ilfov and Giurgiu as part of a criminal investigation involving
\ntwo companies and several individuals suspected of collecting, shipping,
\ndisposing of and burying waste in unauthorised places. In another case, 16
\ncontainers of toxic waste coming from the UK and described in official
\ndocuments as second-hand home appliances were discovered in the Black Sea port
\nof Constanta Sud Agigea. It is suspected that the waste in question was
\nsupposed to be burnt illegally in Ilfov county or end up in one of the dumpsites
\naround Bucharest. The containers in question were returned to the sender and an
\ninvestigation has begun in connection with the illegal export and import of
\nwaste and the use of untruthful documents at the customs. The prosecutor
\nworking on the case says some 50 other containers full of waste may have
\narrived in Romania when the UK was still a member of the European Union. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
One of the palpable consequences of
\nsuch irregularities, which have gone on undetected so far, is the huge scandal
\nthat broke out in Bucharest on Sunday night when air pollution measurements
\nshowed ten times the admitted levels. The acting environment minister Costel
\nAlexe says the cause is the uncontrolled burning of waste in Bucharest and in
\nIlfov county. (CM)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romanian authorities carry out investigations into ecological irregularities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":84905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[33439],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-84904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-pollution"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n