we meet sandor korosfoy, who works in the waste industry. he's also an activist and keeps track of what cluj's waste collectors are doing. so, what's happening now? again it's like different types of waste right? yes, yes. i think they are mixing all the bins, yes. unfortunately. romania recycles just 14 percent of its municipal waste, compared to the eu average of 49 percent . right now recyclables are more expensive to collect than mixed waste. so there's no incentive to collect them separately. with sandor korosfoy and three other environmental activists, i watch drone footage of the new waste plant. the activists are concerned that the site is filling up faster than it should - with unsorted waste. which is illegal in the eu. this is not a momentary mistake. this is structural. as you can see from the area that is covered with non-treated, non-sorted garbage. most of the material they don't treat, don't sort, just dump it there. it's so obvious. from 2014 to 2020, the eu spent 318 million euros subsidizing waste management in romania, 40

we meet sandor korosfoy, who works in the waste industry. he's also an activist and keeps track of what cluj's waste collectors are doing. so, what's happening now? again it's like different types of waste right? yes, yes. i think they are mixing all the bins, yes. unfortunately. romania recycles just 14 percent of its municipal waste, compared to the eu average of 49 percent . right now recyclables are more expensive to collect than mixed waste. so there's no incentive to collect them separately. with sandor korosfoy and three other environmental activists, i watch drone footage of the new waste plant. the activists are concerned that the site is filling up faster than it should - with unsorted waste. which is illegal in the eu. this is not a momentary mistake. this is structural. as you can see from the area that is covered with non-treated, non-sorted garbage. most of the material they don't treat, don't sort, just dump it there. it's so obvious. from 2014 to 2020, the eu spent 318 million euros subsidizing waste management in romania, 40