Romania Unfolds: Responsible production and consumption

Romania Unfolds is a documentary series focusing on Romania’s transition to a more environmentally-friendly model. Episode 3 looks at sustainable production and consumption, exploring a project supporting short food chains and a system of returnable packaging.

ROMO promotes access to locally sourced food. It’s a matter of common sense: this model supports local farmers and enables producers to sell their goods more efficiently, and consumers can get fresh, high quality food. There are broader advantages too: these local farms use more traditional methods which emphasise biodiversity and soil regeneration, and the short supply chains require less packaging, resulting in less waste. The farms aim to raise awareness too, with talks for children on why growing food in this way is beneficial.

R-Create deals in circular packaging solutions. Delivery companies and online shops cooperate, sending parcels in this returnable packaging. With so many people buying online, the sheer amount of packaging waste is impressive – or appalling… This is a great answer to that problem. Each packaging unit has a QR code on it, and after a certain number of uses it’s washed and put back into the loop. It’s a small but growing market, and a great sign in a country which is still struggling to meet recycling targets.

Do have a look at this episode: it’s in Romanian with English subtitles and is genuinely heartening!