FEPRA EPR · What is a PRO
What is a PRO? Explained simply.
If your company places packaged products on the Romanian market, you have a legal obligation towards the Environmental Fund for that packaging. A producer responsibility organisation (PRO, known in Romania as OIREP) is the licensed organisation that takes over this obligation and fulfils it on your behalf. This page explains what that means in practice, what stays with you and how the relationship with the Environmental Fund Administration (AFM) works.
More than 1,500 companies have placed their trust in us. Among them:
Your obligation
How a PRO helps you
The law is clear: you are responsible for every piece of packaging that reaches your customers.
The Environmental Fund Administration (AFM) monitors this process closely. If you cannot show that you recycled a set share of the packaging you placed on the market (boxes, films, bottles), you risk stinging penalties of 2 lei for every kilogram not covered.
Managing this traceability on your own is a bureaucratic nightmare. It would mean tracking a huge network of consumers, collectors and plants just to put together a flawless supporting file.
The solution: transferring the responsibility to a PRO
A PRO takes this burden off your shoulders, legally and operationally, turning a complex problem into a simple flow:
- What you do: a simple monthly declaration of the quantities placed on the market, a task of just a few minutes.
- What the PRO does: it funds collection and recycling, centralises the mountains of supporting documents and, most importantly, takes on the responsibility directly before AFM in case of an inspection.
The journey of packaging
Where the PRO steps in along the journey of packaging
- 1 · The producer or importerplaces the packaged product on the market. This is where the obligation arises, and where the money to the PRO starts from: the PRO fee.
- 2 · The consumeruses the product. The packaging becomes packaging waste.
- 3 · CollectionPackaging waste is gathered from households and companies, separated by material. The PRO pays a bonus for the quantities collected.
- 4 · SortingMaterials are separated and cleaned: glass, PET, paper and cardboard, metal, wood.
- 5 · RecyclingPlants turn the waste into secondary raw material. FEPRA has its own PET and glass plants.
- 6 · The packaging makermakes new packaging from the secondary raw material and delivers it to the producer. The loop closes.
Two flows, one circle. The material goes round the loop: packaging goes from the maker to the producer, packaged products to the consumer, packaging waste passes through collection, sorting and recycling, and the secondary raw material returns to the packaging maker. Money goes from the producer to the PRO, as the PRO fee, and the PRO pays bonuses for the quantities collected, keeps records of each client's quantities and proves that the obligation has been met. What stays with you: you place packaging on the market, declare the quantities and pay the PRO fee.
Who needs a PRO
Who is obliged
You are responsible for packaging if your company does any of the things below. Company size does not matter: an online shop sending a hundred parcels a month has the same obligation as a large manufacturer.
- You manufacture packaged products in Romania, under your own brand or someone else's.
- You import or bring in from other EU countries packaged products, including for your company's own use.
- You repackage products to sell them on (over-packaging).
- You place service packaging on the market: bags, trays, cups, boxes in which the product is put at the point of sale.
- You rent out packaging professionally (pallets, crates, returnable boxes).
Primary beverage packaging that falls under the deposit return system (bottles and cans of 0.1–3 litres, with the 0.50 lei deposit) is managed exclusively through the DRS (SGR in Romania), not through a PRO. The rest of the packaging of the same products (films, multipacks, transport boxes) stays with the PRO.
Why it matters for your company
Three reasons the obligation cannot be ignored
It is a legal obligation, with precise targets
From 2025, Romania must recycle at least 65% of the packaging placed on the market and recover 70%. By material: paper and cardboard 75%, glass 70%, metal 70%, plastic 50%, aluminium 50%, wood 25%. The targets are each company's own, for its own packaging.
The alternative costs much more
For every kilogram of packaging in the target that you do not prove recycled, you owe 2 lei to the Environmental Fund. 10 tonnes of unrecycled plastic means 20,000 lei. A contract with a PRO costs a fraction of that amount and comes with the proof ready-made.
It is checked
AFM audits the declarations and can go back several years. From August 2026, under the new European packaging regulation (PPWR), online marketplaces must check that their sellers have met their extended producer responsibility obligations. Without a PRO, being listed on a marketplace becomes a problem, not just the fine.
The relationship with AFM
What stays with you and what the PRO takes over
| Step | You | With FEPRA |
|---|---|---|
| Registering with AFM | You do it once, in your account on the AFM portal. | We guide you step by step; we check that you are registered before the contract. |
| Records of packaging placed on the market | Only you know the quantities. | The FEPRA 2.0 platform helps you classify them by material and validates them. |
| The monthly AFM declaration | Filed from your account, by the 25th of the following month. | The data comes validated from the platform, with automatic checking of the declaration. |
| The recycling targets | Legally, they are yours. | We meet them, under contract, for the declared quantities. |
| The 2 lei/kg contribution | Owed only if the targets are not met. | If the targets are not met, the contribution is owed by the PRO, not by you. |
| AFM inspections | You present the documents. | We provide the PRO documentation: contract, annexes, proof of recycling. |
Two things a PRO does not do
- It does not pick up waste from your premises. The PRO deals with your products' packaging after it reaches your customers. For the waste from your own activity you need an authorised collector. In the FEPRA Group, that is the Collection division.
- It does not file the declaration for you. The AFM declaration is filed from your company's account. What we do is give you the validated data, so that the declaration is correct and filed on time.
Not all PROs are the same
How to choose a PRO
The licence is only the entry ticket. The difference shows in what happens after signing.
| Criterion | What to ask | FEPRA |
|---|---|---|
| Licence and approval | Is it licensed by the Extended Producer Responsibility Supervisory Commission and approved every year, based on the targets achieved? | Licence no. 10 of 2019, approved annually |
| Own capacity | Does it actually recycle, or only contract third parties? | Own PET and glass plants, in Brad and Buftea |
| Certified systems | Are quality, environment and occupational safety certified? | ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 |
| External audit | Who checks the figures, apart from AFM? | Independent external audit, every year |
| Traceability | Can it show the path of every tonne, with documents? | Full traceability, available in the platform |
| Reporting | How do you declare: Excel by e-mail, or a platform with checks? | FEPRA 2.0, with automatic checking of the AFM declaration |
| Support | Do you have a client relations team that knows you and answers? | Client relations team, real people, same-day answer |
| Externally assessed sustainability | Does it have an independent rating you can use in your own reporting? | EcoVadis Silver |
For those who want the source
The legal framework, in short
Law no. 249/2015
On packaging and packaging waste: who is responsible (art. 16), the two ways of meeting the obligation, individually or through a PRO (art. 16 para. 5), and the minimum targets by material (Annex 5).
Government Emergency Ordinance no. 196/2005
On the Environmental Fund: the 2 lei/kg contribution for the difference between the target and the quantity recycled (art. 9 para. 1 letter d) and the monthly declaration by the 25th (art. 10 para. 3).
Ministry Order no. 1362/2018
The procedure for licensing and annual approval of PROs.
Regulation (EU) 2025/40
PPWR, the new European packaging framework, applicable from 12 August 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What we are asked most often
PRO, OIREP or OTR: which is the right term?
They mean the same thing. "OTR" (responsibility transfer organisation) was the name used in Romania before 2019. Today the law uses the phrase "organisation implementing extended producer responsibility obligations", shortened in the market to OIREP; in English, a producer responsibility organisation (PRO).
I sell online, through marketplaces. Does this concern me?
Yes. The parcel, film, box and filling are packaging you place on the market. From August 2026, the platforms check this too.
Can I meet my obligations without a PRO?
Legally, yes: individually, with your own collection and recycling system, records, audit and reporting. In practice it pays off only for very few companies, with large volumes and returnable packaging.
What happens if I do nothing?
You owe 2 lei for every kilogram in the target that you do not prove recycled, plus possible fines for declarations not filed, and AFM can check previous years.
You know what a PRO does. Now see what FEPRA does on top.
Own plants, traceability down to the tonne, a platform that checks your AFM declaration automatically and a client relations team that answers you.