After reading Muusa’s ‘Just a piece of paper' post, I wanted to reply there, but to avoid a very lengthy and confusing comment, I decided to develop a detailed new article.

First things first, to answer Muusa: Yes, I totally think it matters (I’ve seen Kiitos written on one of the bins in the video, I hope it’s the paper one, thanking you for throwing that piece there). Paper can be recycled and reused easily and it’s not a big effort for us to pursue with this sustainable little thing.

I don’t know if you have your local reciclete there, but it’s a project proving that sustainable development starts with the things we may not consider important.

As the amount of paper used in small offices is of no interest for specialized recycling collectors here, all of it normally ends up thrown away with the rest of the garbage. ViitorPlus (a local NGO) thought about it and started ‘ Recicleta’. A portmanteau, a mix of the Romanian words for recycling and bicycle, ‘Recicleta’ is a concept and a project aimed at collecting waste paper from small economic units like offices. So far nothing special.

The means of transport used are, however, unique in Romania: 3 cargo-bikes (reciclete, hence the name of the project), successfully used in other European countries like The Netherlands or France.  And the story becomes even more interesting, as these special bikes are ridden on the streets of Bucharest by people in need, from the Family Strengthening Program.

Because the traffic in Bucharest is not friendly, and a serious load of paper transported over long distances would bother a lot, cyclists use a trailer for an interim assembly. The ‘reciclete’ loads are emptied into the trailer. When the trailer (that has space for about 2 tonnes of paper) is filled, it is taken to a paper collector.  The collecting process is optimized so that CO2 emissions are minimal. Even so, they are counterbalanced through planting trees. Thus, ‘Recicleta’ becomes the first carbon neutral project in Romania.

So what starts with something as little as throwing a piece of paper in the proper garbage bin, can turn into a social and environmental sustainable development project.

Everything is possible and worth it, as long as we make it such.