Romania’s failed waste-to-energy plans contrast with international examples like Austria and Denmark, which face their own controversies.
🔗 Read the article on hotnews.ro
[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]
Romania has not built any large municipal waste incinerators that produce electricity or heat despite plans existing for over a decade, which have faced strong opposition. A similar idea sparked protests in Bulgaria. Meanwhile, one European country serves as a model for this system, while a spectacular construction in Denmark generated controversy. In Bucharest, a 2019 Masterplan proposed building an incinerator with a capacity of 235,000 tons per year to burn landfill waste and generate energy, costing around €450 million. However, opposition from council members cited outdated and polluting technology, leading to the project’s non-implementation. The city currently relies on aging heating facilities. While the European Commission permits incineration under strict environmental conditions, some activists argue incinerators are too costly compared to alternatives like sealed underground landfills. Vienna is presented as a successful model with modern incinerators integrated into its circular economy goals. In contrast, Denmark built a large, modern incinerator that requires importing waste from the UK to operate at full capacity, leading critics to point out increased CO2 emissions. Consequently, the Danish government decided to reduce incineration capacity by 30% by 2030 and introduced new regulations in 2023 requiring competitive bidding for waste processing services starting in 2025.
