“In 2024, the topic of waste was one of the most important and from the first day of my inauguration we tackled it, precisely because we know what the polluter pays regulation means and what it will lead to if it is implemented in any form”. This was stated by the mayor of Sofia, Vasil Terziev, during a discussion within the annual meeting of the association of municipalities, which takes place in the Albena resort.
Terziev stated that what he and his team have found is a system where 90% of waste is landfilled, low-quality RDF is generated, there is almost no recycling, and there are no requirements for recovery organizations and households.
“No one was prepared for a multiple increase in costs, so we had to go through changes throughout the chain – from how the waste treatment plant worked to how to recycle more in the plant itself, for which there was no working capacity and had to be done a number of improvements to focus on adding new separate collection containers and changes to the composting system,” added Terziev.
One of his great successes, which he noted at the forum, is the fulfillment of one of the most important goals – reducing the amount of landfilled garbage.
“When I acted as mayor, I saw a structure in which the requirements for the people who work in it are the highest, and at the same time they are the lowest paid,” Terziev announced and explained that this necessitated rapid reforms.
It turned out that the waste plant has a capacity of 200 thousand tons, and the contracts concluded between the municipality and it – for less than 100,000 tons, which necessitated the preparation of new tender procedures.
In the end, the administration reports a significant material interest for the municipality – 195,000 tons are used for BGN 22 million, while previously BGN 26 million was paid for 100,000 tons.
Terziev also reported another progress – the introduction of more containers for biological waste, which are removed free of charge, because they produce biogas.
We managed to increase the color containers from 3000 to 6000. Thus, every 250-300 m there is a point with containers for separate collection, concluded Terziev.