In the two years since the system was launched, beverage-packaging collection and recycling has risen to 94%
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n the Transylvanian village of Pianu de Jos, 51-year-old Dana Chitucescu gathers a sack of empty polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, aluminium cans and glass every week and walks it to her local shop.
Like millions of Romanians across cities and rural areas, Chitucescu has woven the country’s two-year-old deposit return system (DRS) into her routine.
It’s a simple scheme: when you buy soft drinks or alcoholic beverages, you pay an extra 0.50 RON (£0.09) per bottle and get the money back when you return the packaging, cleaned and in its original shape, to a collection point ( usually the same shops where the goods were purchased).
