Public Services in the Background of Sustainable Development

Abstract

Nowadays, there is an increasing focus on quality of life. Public administration, as part of the executive branch of the government, is constantly concerned with providing citizens with a decent standard of living. From this perspective, in the background of sustainable development, the paper aims at analyzing public services in terms of reducing environmental pollution. The subject is topical and of general importance as it focuses on one of the ways to reduce pollution, namely the implementation of the deposit-return system for non-reusable primarypackaging – ReturRO. In terms of research methodology, the paper combines the national and comparative law approaches. The structure of the paper consists of two components: a theoretical one, that will present the legislation applicable to public services and will research the specialized doctrine and a practical one, that will analyze the particularities of the deposit-return system in Romania. Research results show that the extent to which public services and sustainable development objectives are met depends on the involvement of all citizens in public interest projects.

Received: 20 April 2025 / Accepted: 15 June 2025 / Published: 25 June 2025