Romania faces nearly €1 billion EU charge for unrecycled plastic waste
Romania will pay almost €1 billion to the EU for plastic packaging that was not recycled between January 2025 and October 2025.
A recent analysis by Adrian Teampău, Director of Environmental Taxes and Circular Economy, and Anca Andrei-Cimbru, Manager of Environmental Taxes and Circular Economy at Deloitte Romania, calculates that Romania’s unpaid plastic waste contribution to the EU budget reached RON 5,055,420,257 - close to €1 billion - for the period from 1 January to 1 October 2025. Under the EU scheme introduced in 2021, each kilogram of unrecycled plastic packaging incurs a €0.80 fee, with adjustments for certain states.
The authors stress that every kilogram left unrecycled directly raises the national fiscal burden. On a positive note, Romania’s deposit-return system for beverage containers, administered by RetuRO, reported the return of more than 4.1 billion containers between January and September 2026, lifting the collection rate to 85%, about three percentage points above the same period last year.
Why it matters
The charge adds a substantial burden to Romania’s public finances and highlights the need for better plastic recycling.
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