Eco-Rom Ambalaje Magazine Issue No.12 May - July 2014 | Page 2

EDITORIAL Aer an Eco-decade with Eco-Rom Ambalaje, Romania Shows Improved Keener Civic and Enviromental Mentality Success with Eco-Rom Ambalaje, A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATIONAL ECONOMY Early in 2014, Eco-Rom Ambalaje and IMAS S.A. analyzed the social and economic impact of the organization, with a view to assessing its direct and indirect financial indicators in relation to clients and suppliers. ﬔis analysis also takes into account changes induced in society and covers the past 6 years in operation. Sorin Cristian Popescu General Manager Lorita Constantinescu Public Relations and Communications Director We started back in 2004 with an extremely ambitious project for that time: to develop a single system for the transfer of responsibility on packaging waste in Romania. It is based on an effective partnership between the manufacturing industry and importers of packaged goods whose continuous and proactive contribution we hail, along with waste management operators, recyclers, local authorities and residents. ﬔus, over the past 10 years, we have recycled 2.6 million tons of packaging waste, namely 72% of Romania’s recyclying commitments. According to a study made in 2013, Eco-Rom Ambalaje created and maintained 12,000 jobs, of which 9,500 in the waste management business. Each investment, each awareness campaign has brought a change in behavior within the society at large. Nine out of ten households understand separate collection and three out of ten separate packaging waste. ﬔe efforts that Eco-Rom Ambalaje has made proved succesful, while our members contributed with 282 million lei in financial support over the last decade. ﬔerefore, our achievements have helped develop more of the civic and ecological spirit in Romania and our success is now our obligation. We are enjoying our anniversary, always looking towards the future. 2 A s opposed to other business organizations, Eco-Rom Ambalaje has set up a trilateral business model with the following components: taking responsibility of producer and input for the obligations set by law regarding the recovery and recycling of packaging waste, commiting to play an operational as well as formative and informative part for a public service (separate collection for residential areas) and taking on the responsibility of law enforcement. ﬔis trilateral business model is a leading engine in the process and is based on self-assessment: continuous and relevant measurements of quantities of materials processed, financial costs and behavioral changes. Eco-Rom Ambalaje clients all have massive turnovers, a total of almost EUR 40 billion in 2012, and they hire about 5% of Romania’s workforce. Estimates based on last year’s data show that, if all our clients had to collect and recycle the packaging introduced on the domestic market on their own, their average profitability rate would drop by about 15%. ﬔe main indirect effect of our work is, thus, supporting jobs downstream. According to the same study, Eco-Rom Ambalaje sustained, in 2012, almost info 12,000 jobs with our suppliers, of which 9,500 are based in waste management and recycling. Although the average gross salary has remained relatively similar over the past 6 years, the contribution made by Eco-Rom Ambalaje to the gross payroll of its suppliers increased in percentages from 0.14% in 2007 to 0.21% in 2012, when the gross added value to the suppliers’ payroll was of RON 3,154 per employee. ﬔe Gross Added Value (GAV) stands for the sum total of payroll expenses, including taxes and fees paid by the employer and employee and the company’s profit. ﬔe upstream downstream analysis conducted to measure social and economic impact did not dwell on profit, but on fulfilling the three goals presented above. As a result, profit was eliminated from the GAV calculations, resulting in the Gross Payroll Added Value (GPAV). ﬔe social and economic impact of Eco-Rom Ambalaje SA operations could be measured accordingly, irrespective of the economy cycles affecting profit and in line with the anually increasing obligations as to the transfer of responsibility. ﬔe organization’s most important suppliers are companies dealing in waste management and recycling. ﬔeir number almost doubled during the analyzed period, from 133 in 2007 to 208 in 2012, following a geographic as well as Eco-Rom Ambalaje is an organization with a highly effective management rate, performing 70% of Romania’s recycling obligations.