There are no accurate statistics about the volume of used tires and used oil in the Republic of Moldova and also about the motor vehicles that become scarp iron. It is yet definite that they are a source of pollution with multiple risks to the environment and people’s health, said participants in a news conference held at the Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Development that, together with the Environmental Projects Implementations Unit (EPIU), is putting into practice a grant program to manage such waste to the value of €200,000.
Gennady Yurco, secretary of state at the Ministry, and Dorin Andros, EPIU project manager, related that the projects that will be collected until August 20 will focus on the cooperation between local public authorities and business entities in the prevention of illegal storage of specific articles, supporting of recycled products markets and development of regional infrastructure for eliminating solid waste, in accordance with the practices of the EU member states. It is important to increase the population’s and waste generating sector’s awareness of the importance of managing this waste and the risks associated with the inappropriate use of such waste amid the existing collection and recycling capacities.
Implicitly, the projects will promote technological innovations in the waste management sector, will contribute to developing the specific waste collection and/or treatment systems and to launching projects aimed at improving the environment and the quality of human life, including at increasing local competitiveness in the specific management of waste flows.
A lot of work is to be done. About 30,000 cars are annually imported from abroad. A number of 960,000 motor vehicles were registered in the country in 2020 and 68% of these were older than ten years. The cars annually generate about 7,560 tonnes of used oil that are burned in the stove in the best case, polluting the environment. The fate of the 1 million tires that are annually imported into Moldova is also uncertain.
