INVESTIGAȚIE RECORDER. Reciclarea în România: haos, corupție și incompetență

We are at the bottom of the European Union regarding recycling rates, but what is not known in Brussels is that even the shameful percentages we report yearly seem far from reality. When we are asked to recycle 50% of the waste we produce and report back 11%, no one will question whether or not these shameful numbers are real. And the truth is that no one knows how much is recycled in Romania. Between the statistics of the two institutions that collect data on national waste management, there are differences of tens of millions of tons. No official of the Romanian state seems to raise an eyebrow in front of these blatant anomalies. No one noticed, no one checked, and there are no explanations. The officials look puzzled through the papers in the country's town halls. No one has the guts to guarantee that the recycling percentages they get from sanitation companies are genuine. And these companies don't want to explain how it's possible that in a commune where people say they don't collect selectively, there are 60-70% recycling rates. It's a mixture of corruption and incompetence that no one bothers to hide anymore, nor could they. The waste-covered fields on the outskirts of the towns are pretty visible. And so are the side-eyed looks of the state's highest officials when faced with the chaos of their own statistics. -------------------------- Recorder is an online publication built by a team of journalists around these principles: honest journalism, done with passion and in the service of the public. You can find more of our videos on: Website: https://www.recorder.ro Our Facebook page:   / myrecorder   Instagram account:   / recorder.ro   You can also follow us on Telegram: https://t.me/redactia_recorder