According to GEO no. 92/2021, the ordinance that regulates the waste regime, waste producers / waste disposers (being considered a waste producer any person whose activity generates waste, regardless of the object of activity itself) have the following obligations:

• To designate a person from among their own employees or a third person to manage the fulfillment of the legal obligations regarding waste management, and in the case of activities for which it is necessary to obtain an environmental permit/integrated environmental permit, the designated person must be trained in the field of waste generation prevention and waste management, including in the field of hazardous substances, following the completion of a nationally recognized further training and specialization programme;
• To collect, transport and store separately the various categories of hazardous waste (if any), unless authorised by the territorial public authority;
• To carry out a waste hierarchy, and in the case of a type of waste that falls under two different codes depending on the possible presence of hazardous characteristics, to establish classification as non-hazardous waste only on the basis of an analysis of origin, tests, analysis bulletins and other relevant documents requested by the environmental protection authority;
• Collect waste separately and do not mix it with other waste;
• Classify and code the waste generated from the activity in accordance with Commission Decision 2000/532/EC of 3 May 2000;
• Ensure that waste is prepared for reuse, recycled or undergoes other recovery operations;
• To carry out treatment operations by its own means or through an economic operator;
• Reduce the generation of food waste in primary production;
• To reduce the volume of waste generated, in particular that which cannot be prepared for reuse or recycling;
• Adopt specific measures regarding waste oils;
• If the commercial activity requires an environmental permit/integrated environmental permit, carry out an audit, which may be carried out by a third party or professional association, publish it on its website and submit it annually to the agency responsible for environmental protection by 31 May of the year following the report;
• To keep a monthly chronological record which they publish in tabular format and make available to the environmental protection agency in electronic format by 15 March of the year following the report and at the request of the competent control authorities and to keep the record for at least 3 years;
• In the case of hazardous waste (if any) to hold the analysis bulletins characterizing them as hazardous and to transmit them, upon request, to the authorities with environmental protection powers;
• To carry out and possess a characterization of the hazardous waste generated from its own activity and of the waste that can be considered hazardous because of its origin or composition and if it presents one or more of the properties specified in Annex 4 of the GEO;
• Not to reclassify hazardous wastes as non-hazardous by diluting or mixing them in order to reduce the initial concentrations of hazardous substances to a level lower than that required to be considered hazardous.

Failure to comply with some of the provisions of GEO 92/2021 constitutes an offence and is punishable by a fine of between 40,000 and 70,000 lei. In some situations, some acts may constitute offences punishable by imprisonment from 1 to 7 years or a fine.

Also, according to Law 249/2015, economic operators who place packaged products on the national market are responsible for taking back and recovering packaging/packaging waste from consumers/end users. Specifically, under this extended responsibility, operators placing packaged products on the national market are obliged to:

• have a quantitative record and implement the extended producer responsibility obligations under para. (5), for packaging placed on the national market, by type of material and by type of packaging, primary, secondary and transport packaging;
• ensure the recycling and, if they cannot be recycled, the recovery by other methods of primary packaging that is returned and has become waste;
• ensure the collection and recycling, and if they cannot be recycled, the recovery by other means of the commercial and industrial packaging waste for which they are responsible, without imposing additional costs on the original waste producer;
• cover the costs of collecting and transporting used primary packaging from packaged products intended for consumption by the general public, taking into account the proceeds from the sale as secondary raw materials of materials from their packaging or from unclaimed guarantees and, where appropriate, for their recovery when they become waste;
• cover, as from 1 January 2019, the costs for the collection and transport, temporary storage, sorting and, where appropriate, for the recovery of packaging waste managed by the sanitation services established under this Act;
• meet at least the targets set out in Annex 5, which sets out the minimum values of the targets for recovery and recycling of packaging waste.

This extended liability obligation may, however, be transferred to a Responsibility Transfer Organization which takes over the responsibility for recycling and recovery of packaging waste.

Failure to comply with the provisions of Law 249/2015 constitutes a contravention and is punishable by a fine of between 4000 and 50000 lei, and in certain circumstances some conduct may constitute a criminal offense.