Interview with Diana Cîtu, CEO Reciclad’OR: “The company’s success is based on transparency and ethics in business, in the relationship with its customers and collaborators. “

How has RECICLAD`OR evolved in the three and a half years since its establishment?

Protecting the environment in which we live, moving towards a circular economy, informing and raising public awareness, combined with continuous improvement of operational performance and long-term development planning have been our strategic objective from the very beginning. Following organic development, Reciclad’OR today takes responsibility for packaging recycling for more than 700 companies that place packaged products on the national market. At the same time, in order to achieve our recycling targets, we have partnerships with more than 240 waste collectors and 7 sanitation operators nationwide.

As the number of customers and suppliers has grown, the company has developed a broad portfolio of resources and skills. Tripling the number of employees, local expansion, in addition to Bucharest, in four major cities (Iasi, Cluj, Constanta and Timisoara), innovation at the IT level (online) of the access of companies to the packaging waste recycling system are some of the attributes that denote this. For superior resource exploitation, the company has incorporated exceptional functional, strategic and operational competencies over the last two years.

As part of the strategic development process, caring for the community has been a priority for Reciclad’OR. Understanding the importance of citizen involvement in the packaging waste collection process, we have developed over 60 social responsibility campaigns (CSR). The common objective of these campaigns has been to develop appropriate daily citizen behaviour towards separate collection of packaging waste.

What is the current position of the company and which markets are you active in?

From an operational point of view, in accordance with the rules governing our field of activity, we are only active on the national market. However, we are constantly in touch with developments on the international markets through the sustained activity we carry out within the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) and the Prevent Waste Alliance, two of the largest associations in the world. Depending on the legislative development in the Republic of Moldova, we are considering a replication of the Romanian model, adapted, of course, to the requirements/specificities of the neighbouring country.

For over 50 years ISWA has been promoting resource efficiency through sustainable production and consumption, promoting the best available technologies and practices worldwide and developing a range of scientific, economic and social tools. Within ISWA we are involved in the technical work of the Working Group on European issues specific to waste management (legislative, technical, communication etc).

The Prevent Waste Alliance is a multi-stakeholder partnership that brings together leading players from the private sector, academia, civil society and public institutions and aims to minimise waste, eliminate pollutants and maximise resource reuse in the global economy. Within this partnership we are working in two working groups: Conserving resources and Closing the packaging cycle.

All the expertise we have gained at international level we pass on to our clients free of charge in workshops or one-to-one meetings.

Our company currently has offices in Bucharest, Cluj, Iasi, Constanta and Timisoara, and we are expanding nationwide so that we will be much closer to our customers’ needs.

The process of consolidating its position as market leader continued in 2020. The quality of service, the transparency and predictability of the rates charged, the responsiveness to customer requests, the CSR programmes and the brand reputation are the key success factors that have generated a high degree of retention of the customer portfolio and a continuous increase in the number of new customers.

From our position as a leader in the liability transfer market, we want to be a strategic partner for manufacturers and retailers and a permanent source of inspiration and innovation for Romanian industry and society.

How much will the pandemic affect you in 2020? And what are your plans for this year?

Reciclad’OR has taken responsibility for packaging recycling for more than 700 companies in various industrial sectors. By analysing our clients’ monthly reports, we identified that the pandemic did not affect all industrial sectors in a linear way. Some sectors were more severely affected and others less so.

However, with a diversified customer portfolio, the impact of the pandemic on Reciclad’OR’s business has been moderate. The 32% increase in the customer portfolio in 2020 contributed significantly to mitigating the impact and allowed us to meet the targets set in our strategic planning for 2020.

The pandemic has shown us once again how unpredictable and fragile the economic and social environment can sometimes be. In a context where economic forecasts are no longer so effective and where essential information for the packaging recycling market is sometimes contradictory, we had to develop our own effective early warning system in-house. Increased response speed and operational flexibility to market changes or economic turbulence are essential for Reciclad’OR‘s future work.

Unfortunately, the effects of COVID-19 have led to the postponement of the Ape Libere (Free Waters) project, the national Reciclad’OR programme to clean up Romania’s natural and reservoir lakes. The permanent care for the community remains a priority in Reciclad’OR’s activity and we hope that the evolution of the pandemic in 2021 will allow us to start this program so important for us and for the Romanian society.

This year we want to open up, through the e-reciclare.ro platform, the access of medium and small companies to reach the targets set by the law, and to strengthen the collaboration with our partners, both producers and other OIREPs, in order to make the market more transparent and strengthen it.

How has the recycling market evolved in Romania and what is the general attitude of Romanians towards recycling and the circular economy?

The collection and recycling of packaging waste is a highly regulated activity and therefore has a certain degree of predictability, at least in terms of legal obligations. The general directions in which packaging and packaging waste management activity is heading in the European Union are currently known. These directions can be found in the package of laws – the Circular Economy Directive, the Single-Use Plastic Directive and the European Green Pact.

If we speak of a general market trend, we can say that in the coming years we will see a shift from quantitative to qualitative recycling as a fundamental condition for implementing the circular economy.

Without fail, the technology will help innovate recycling models or substantially improve existing ones and will have a direct impact on competitive positions in the supply chain.

Increasing recycling targets, eco-modulation of recycling fees and changing market drivers will generate changes in the value proposition of pass-through organisations.

Consumer behaviour in relation to packaging waste will undergo certain changes, which will be all the more evident when the deposit system for PET, glass and aluminium packaging is introduced.

For the first time, Reciclad’OR has initiated a comprehensive research on the forecast of packaging recycling in Romania during 2021 – 2025.  The research will analyse all the characteristics of the packaging recycling model from legal regulations and the impact of technology to consumer behaviour and the research results will be made available to our customers.

What should the model citizen of tomorrow’s Romania look like, environmentally friendly?

In Romania, before any discussion of a model-individual in packaging waste recycling, we will have to create a coherent system of separate collection at national level and develop an integrated, unified and permanent strategy of communication with the consumer in order to constantly improve consumer behaviour.

The significant difference between awareness and involvement in separate collection in Romania is highlighted for the first time in an IMAS study (2014) which shows that 9 out of 10 households are “aware” of the importance of separate collection of packaging waste but only 3 out of 10 households are actually “involved” in this process.

One of the main causes that hinder the separate collection process in Romania is precisely that citizens are not yet aware that packaging waste is a valuable resource. Packaging waste is not rubbish, but a valuable resource to be recovered.

And the regulator, together with us, those actively involved in this mechanism, must do more to raise public awareness, improve the infrastructure for separate collection or clarify legislation, so that recycling packaging waste becomes part of our daily routine, part of a normality of an eco-educated Romania, responsible towards the environment.

This article was taken from the website of Ziarul News – edition, https://ziarulnews.ro/2021/05/24/interviu-cu-diana-citu-ceo-reciclador-succesul-companiei-se-bazeaza-pe-transparenta-si-etica-in-afaceri-in-relatia-cu-clientii-si-colaboratorii-sai/. (Carmen Burtea).