TeraPlast, a Romanian manufacturer of construction materials, has pipes for external sewers made of 100% recycled PVC and uses approximately 20%-30% recycled material in the production of PVC pipes, says Alexandru Stânean, CEO TeraPlast. He talked to Green Forum about the company's key sustainability objectives and investment plans in 2023.
Auchan has set up collection points in the parking lots of its stores or within its premises where customers can recycle three types of packaging: PETs, aluminum cans, and glass bottles. Starting from Tuesday, April 18, customers are encouraged to bring the PET, glass, and aluminum packaging used during the Easter holidays, to the collection-recycling points equipped with automatic machines in 37 Auchan stores. Customers will be rewarded with a voucher worth RON0.5 (€0.1) granted exclusively in the form of a loyalty voucher, for each packaging recycled in its stores until May 31, 2023.
Coca-Cola Romania is transitioning to plastic bottles with attached caps, to facilitate their collection and recycling. Starting in April, the first series of bottles with attached caps will be available for the brands in the non-carbonated soft drinks portfolio, namely Fuzetea, and Cappy. The new caps will facilitate the recycling of all packaging and aim to collect plastic bottles together with the attached caps.
Fepra will invest €15 million by 2030 to develop the circular economy in Romania, based on a complex sustainable development strategy developed in partnership with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The company's objectives are to further expand the range of services and products, broaden its areas of expertise and develop the new waste collection, recycling, as well as reuse capabilities.
A new study finds an estimated investment gap of €6.7-8.6 billion must be closed to achieve Europe's pledged goal of placing on the EU market each year 10 million tonnes (Mt) of plastic recyclates in final products by 2025. Plastic packaging is the biggest contributor to the plastic waste problem and 25 companies are responsible for half of the world's plastic production.
In the last three months of last year, over 29,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions were reduced in Romania, through the packaging recycling activity generated by approximately 700 companies, according to Clean Recycle data. In 2021, Romania recorded a quantity of 79 million tons of carbon emissions from all industries, increasing by 5 million tons compared to 2020.
Retailer Auchan contributed to the recycling of 14,000 tons of waste at the store level in Romania in 2021. Also, through the collection of used cooking oil, initiated in October 2019, more than 220,000 liters of oil were collected until the end of 2021.
Coca-Cola HBC, Penny Romania and GreenPoint Management launch the information campaign and separate collection of PET packaging, which brings ECOBONUS to the entire Bucharest community at the beginning of the year.
SPIE Energy Poland announced new projects at a time of major investment in Poland to support the energy transition.
ABB's Smart Buildings Division has announced a strategic collaboration with the World Green Building Council's (WorldGBC) European Regional Network (ERN) to accelerate sustainable and energy-efficient building practices across Europe.
Poland has received €9.4 billion from the EU's National Recovery Plan (NRP) after fulfilling its second and third payment requests.
SolarPower Europe (SPE) forecasts 65.5GW of solar PV additions in the EU for 2024, marking a significant slowdown compared to previous years.
EIB will provide €243 million in financing to leading independent clean wind and solar energy operator ERG Group to promote the development of renewable energy in Italy, France and Germany.
