Sustainable recycling policies: the European Directive impositions and their perceived impact on retailers in emerging markets

This paper considers the theoretical and practical aspects of public sustainability policy, analyzing in particular the elements related to recycling. From a theoretical perspective, the article aims to present the existing legislative framework at the level of the European Union regarding the recycling obligations that large companies from emerging markets have. From a practical perspective, we have made a case study that reflects how the existing legislation at the EU level is applied by retailers, especially by the company that has the largest number of employees. In the case study, we analyzed the main actions that the organization implements to encourage consumers in the recycling process. For this research, we took into account the situation in emerging markets, in the process of development, where consumers have not fully acquired their recycling behaviour. As a result of the research carried out, we observe the actions regarding recycling initiated by the retailer, even before the adoption of the legislative framework. For the time period considered, the conducted research showed that the amount of recycled plastic packaging in Romania increased by 1.65%, while paper/cardboard packaging recorded a decrease in recycling by 7.98%. For this research, we monitored the implementation of the guarantee-return system (GRS), taking into account the measures implemented by the selected retailer, as well as the level of convenience experienced during the process. The conducted research demonstrated that the highest number of people who recycle (69%) carry out this action at least once a week, with plastic packaging being the most frequently recycled, accounting for 81%. Thus, we can conclude that large companies are aware of the role they have at the community level, aiming to educate and support consumers in adopting a sustainable behaviour.