Some people’s trash, others’ treasure. How much does a Romanian earn daily who collects recyclable PETs from the trash cans

The trash produced by some has turned, in recent months, into the treasure of others. At the national level, more and more people have appeared collecting PETs, from various places, to obtain the guarantee of 50 money in exchange for them.

For some people, this has become like a real job, managing to get significant amounts of money on a daily basis.

Some people’s trash, others’ treasure

The Guarantee-Return System (SGR) is the new waste management system in Romania, currently.

According to the information provided by Mircea Fechet, the Minister of the Environment, in April 2024 the barrier of 5 million PETs collected every day, nationally, was broken.

Thus, it is not surprising that there are people who have seen in this system a great opportunity, through which they can get money on a daily basis.

“Adevărul” reporters spoke with a man from Iași who, every day, sets out in the morning in search of packaging with a guarantee. He said that he manages to obtain, at the end of the day, a fairly large amount of money, which he uses for shopping.

“I get up at about 5am and go around town looking for bottles. I live in the Dacia neighborhood and almost every day I have this route, I reach the other end of the city, in the CUG. I have a cart that I load with PETs and unload from them on the way, at stores that have these collection machines. Let’s say that I make about 100 lei daily from the bottles I collect. It’s not much, but it’s not little either. Most of the time I buy food with the money I collect in a day“, said the resident of Iesa.

Leisure areas, the most profitable

The man stated that he does not open the garbage cans, intended for residents of the city, and that it is limited to the PETs in the street garbage cans.

At the same time, he also has a very well developed strategy. On weekends, for example, he goes to the recreation areas of the city, where many people from Iași go for picnics or barbecues. Here, he claims, “treasures” are to be found.

“I go on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to Ciric or CA Rosetti, where they have barbecues. It’s full of people who have bottles of juice, water, beer with them. Most of the time I ask people directly for those bottles. In one weekend I even managed to earn 400 lei. I don’t think we are harming anyone, on the contrary. We help recycle and can say we get paid for it. For some, the 50 bucks is not important. But at the end of the day, you can do a lot with the money you raise“, the man from Iași also told.