Amount of waste in Bulgaria will grow, Environment and Waters Ministry says |
The amount of waste in Bulgaria will be growing over the next years despite the drop in its population, shows an analysis made by experts of the Waste Management Department of the Environment and Waters Ministry. The analysis was received at BTA from the Ministry.
The analysis was made as part of the development of a national strategy for reducing the amounts of decomposable biological waste. The draft of the strategy is ready and submitted for public discussion.
The environment and waters minister is expected to approve the strategy in November and then it will be included in the National Waste Management Programme. The programme is not of the type of documents that need Council of Ministers’ approval, the Ministry said.
According to the analysis, the reason for the expected waste increase is the growth of the urban population by 10 per cent until 2015, according to projections of the National Statistical Institute (NSI).
The implementation of measures for reducing decomposable biowaste is important as this type of waste accounts for about 30 per cent of household waste in rural areas, and for about 40 per cent in urban areas, the Ministry said.
According to NSI statistics, the per capita household waste in rural areas is 160 kg, including 50 kg decomposable waste; the figure for urban areas is 300-350 kg, 140 kg of which decomposable. Therefore, decreasing the decomposable biowaste will reduce significantly the amount of waste that needs special ways of disposal.
The target figures of the strategy for reducing decomposable biowaste are as follows: from 268 kg per capita in 1995, which is the year of reference, to 224 kg per capita in 2010, 152 kg in 2013 and 109 kg in 2020.
One of the first measures envisaged in the strategy is the separate collection of "green" waste from public parks and gardens (branches, leaves, grass, etc.) and from landscape engineering companies.
The application of the measure will start before 2008 since the composting of greens is not difficult technologically, can be performed in the open and needs special equipment only for annual amounts exceeding 10,000 t.
It is proposed to apply the measure in all cities with a population of more than 50,000 (I.e. more than 26 cities). By 2008, the system should be already applied in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Bourgas, Rousse, Stara Zagora, Pleven, Dobrich, Sliven, Shoumen, Haskovo and Yambol.
The strategy envisages separate collection and treatment of paper and cardboard non-package waste - for instance, newspapers, notebooks, office paper, etc. The measure will be applied in all cities with a population over 50,000.
The introduction of separate collection and treatment of biowaste - food waste and waste from private yards - is more complicated and will be launched by 2013. However, pilot projects will get off ground already in 2010.
The strategy envisages the construction of mechanical and biological waste treatment plants. Such plants are economically feasible when the population of the area in which they operate exceeds 150,000.
The cost of the measures mapped out in the strategy for reducing decomposable biowaste is 1.50 euros per capita for the measures to be applied by 2010, 6-11 euros for those to be applied by 20-13m and about 12-22 euros for the ones to be implemented by 2020.
Source: BTA
