CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN THE FOOD AND DRINKS SECTOR - A ROMANIAN OVERVIEW

In recent years, the concept of circular economy has gained increasing traction around the world to create sustainable economic growth and reduce waste and environmental impact. Romania, like many other countries, has been working to adopt circular economy principles and practices in its own economy, with varying degrees of success. My research consists of a document analysis of the most recent Government Decision, no. 1172/2022 regarding the National Strategy for circular economy. I focused my research on the food and drinks sector, the main research objectives being to identify the problems and the solutions to the problems from the circular economy perspective in the sector mentioned. The main problems consist of low recycling rates, high food waste rates and the main solutions are found in education for a sustainable development to reduce the food waste and reducing the use of plastic in packaging and promoting the use of recycled materials.