Latest waste plans set to keep Sofia bottom of Europe's waste pile

In recent years Sofia municipality has been looking for a modern waste management solution, but all in the wrong direction. At the end of 2011, the Bulgarian capital submitted its latest application for funding to the European Commission. Regrettably, this featured a capital-intensive waste treatment facility and virtually no measures directed at higher levels of the so-called 'waste hierarchy' – namely prevention and reuse.

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The waste facility in question is a mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant estimated to cost at least EUR 107 million, with EUR 83 million of this being sought from the EU funds under the European Regional Development Fund, supplemented by a EUR 12 million loan from the European Investment Bank.

The envisioned MBT plant would take in the bulk of the mixed municipal solid waste generated in Sofia, and output one third of it for landfilling, with just three percent of low quality and low value recyclable materials recovered. The remaining two thirds of the output promise to be a financial burden to local taxpayers. 'Compost-like output', to comprise 17 percent of the MBT plant's output, is, simply put, low quality compost. A feasibility study has fixed the price of this material at zero, due to uncertainties about its usage. Due to its content of hazardous materials, CLO is unfit for agricultural use and, very likely, it will end up in the new landfill, significantly shortening its lifetime. Refuse-derived fuel (RDF), the remaining 38 percent of the output, will also incur costs: even now Sofia pays some 30 euros per tonne for burning RDF in a cement kiln.

To make matters worse, the plan is to apply for more EU funding – estimated at about EUR 100 million – in order to install RDF-burning capacity in the municipally-owned district-heating plant Toplofikacia Sofia. Replacing natural gas with solid fuel from mixed municipal waste will inevitably increase ambient concentrations of fine particulate matter which in Sofia are already above EU limits.

Attempts to obtain public access to the feasibility studies for this district-heating plant project by Bulgarian Bankwatch member Za Zemiata have so far been blocked by the local authorities, and Za Zemiata is awaiting a decision on this from the Supreme Administrative Court.

Scraping the bottom of the waste barrel

Bulgaria is the EU's laggard in terms of waste management performance and implementation of EU waste legislation, with nearly 100 percent landfilling. In the five years since accession to the EU in 2007, Bulgaria has made no progress on waste prevention and reuse, and rather insignificant advances towards achieving higher source separation, recycling, biological treatment and landfill diversion of waste.

Similarly, Sofia's recycling performance is extremely poor. Estimates show that Sofia recycles only around 20 percent of all waste generated from household, administrative and commercial sources. The 'producer responsibility' system for separate collection of packaging is dysfunctional and shrinking instead of improving – as of now, one third of Sofia's population does not have access to containers for separate collection of recyclables, while the number of containers is insufficient to guarantee convenient access for most of the remaining population.

Since less waste is being steered towards higher levels of the waste hierarchy, the lack of long-term planning and informed decision-making creates the need for 'end-of-pipe' technological fixes, such as the proposed MBT.

However, alternatives to this plan exist. One proposal from Za Zemiata places emphasis on investments directed close to the sources of waste, instead of the current end-of-pipe approach, in order to capture resources rather than treat waste. This involves optimising the source separation of recyclable and compostable materials by introducing door-to-door collection in place of the existing public street containers, as well as a pay-as-you-throw waste tax.

In this alternative scenario, improved resource management by 2015 could yield over EUR 8 million annually from high-value recyclables and over EUR 1 million from energy obtained via biological waste treated to produce biogas. In contrast, when material flows are considered, the MBT scenario has a net annual cost of EUR 1.5 million, as income from low-quality recyclables (EUR 3 million) is exceeded by the costs of burning RDF and disposing of CLO.

The cost-benefit analysis of the project confirms that the major project risks relate to RDF and CLO market value. This gap in revenues would have to be covered by increasing the waste tax charges for local inhabitants and businesses. With comparable operational and investment costs for waste collection in both scenarios, the alternative creates more green jobs and extends the lifetime of the landfill, while avoiding harmful air emissions and the destruction of valuable resources.

Although European Commission approval of the project was expected in early 2012, this still has not happened. Meanwhile, the results of the tender for the MBT plant's construction were due to come out at the end of August, but have not yet been announced. Seemingly, then, the deficiencies of the project are once more behind its delay, as was the case in 2010 when the Commission refused to finance the project until it was thoroughly revised.

If approved, the proposed Sofia MBT plant will represent a net cost to society, the environment and the economy, as it will work against the efficient use of resources and against achieving the goal of 50 percent preparation for reuse/recycling by 2020, as set by the EU's Waste Framework Directive. It will also worsen air quality and associated negative impacts on human health and the environment in Sofia.

As the project is reliant on 85 percent co-financing from the EU funds, the Commission decision when it comes will be critical for the future of Sofia's waste management system.

According to Evgenia Tasheva, Zero waste coordinator at Za Zemiata, the Commission should not fund the project as it is currently conceived: “Due to the flawed rationale of this project, we'd like to see the Commission either simply not approving the request for finance, or setting tough conditionalities and giving one last chance to Sofia municipality to submit a proposal that is in line with EU waste hierarchy and resource efficiency efforts. The Commission should require that an up-to-date and reliable study of Sofia's waste composition is carried out. This is likely to lead to the conclusion that before any new costly treatment facilities are implemented, more efforts should be made to increase the capture of recyclables and biowaste from households, offices, businesses and administration in Sofia.”

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