EU//Online Workshop on the "Polluter Pays and Extended Producer Responsibility: Legal Aspects" principle

Between September 17 and 21, 2021, the Waste Recovery Association organized 3 online workshops on the application of the "Polluter pays: practical and legal aspects" principle with the involvement of the community from the 6 localities (Străseni municipality, Lozova commune, s. Sireți, s. Negrești, s. Scoreni and s. Vorniceni) beneficiary of the project "Management of solid waste through the active involvement of the community". The expert trained in the realization of these workshops, Mr. Igor ŞEREMET, presented and argued the importance of knowing and respecting the "polluter pays" principle, the rights of consumers and the obligations of economic agents producing waste, practical and legal aspects regarding the functionality of the sanitation service, etc.

It is certain that waste is a source of air, water and soil pollution. In this sense, the EU and national legislative framework on waste aims at the correct application of "waste hierarchies" to reduce waste and use unavoidable waste as a resource.

According to art. 3 paragraph (2) of Law no. 209/2016, Applying the waste hierarchy, and its compliance are mandatory for all subjects involved in waste management, ensuring the prevention of waste generation and the efficient and effective management of waste, so as to reduce their negative effects on the environment.

At the moment, according to the data presented by the sanitation operators from the Străseni district and APLs, the tariffs for the collection and transportation of solid household waste do not include the expenses for the storage of waste at landfills, for the procurement and maintenance of dumpsters, for the disinfection of dumpsters and platforms, for the construction and maintenance of waste storage platforms. In this context, in order to ensure the continuity of waste collection services, through the organized workshops, it was aimed to explain the role of these tariffs and encourage citizens to pay the local sanitation tariff. Last but not least, the advantages of the mechanism of extended responsibility of the legally regulated producer at the national level and the possibility of collaboration of LPAs and municipal enterprises with waste producers were also discussed.

AO "Association for Waste Valorification" is the beneficiary of the European Union's Local Grants Program, launched on the basis of the EU's Single Support Framework, awarded to the Republic of Moldova (2017-2020) within the European Neighborhood Instrument, through the project "Empowering the citizens of Republic of Moldova" (2019-2021), financed by the European Union and implemented by the German International Cooperation Agency (GIZ). The project partner for the Center region is the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance AGER in partnership with the Public Association Regional Development Agency "Habitat" (AO ADR "Habitat").