Stench rising over Sofia waste crisis, warns local group

The environmental assessment (EIA) of a waste management project proposed by Sofia municipality to deal with the Bulgarian capital's chronic waste problems has been criticised by Bankwatch's Bulgarian member group Za Zemiata for failing to consider an alternative waste management scenario officially submitted by NGOs in collaboration with experts and researchers from Europe and the U.S. Such a procedural breach of Bulgarian EIA legislation should, believes Za Zemiata, rule out vital EU funding that the authorities in Sofia are seeking for the EUR 175 million project. [1]

Ivaylo Hlebarov, of Za Zemiata and Bankwatch national coordinator who has participated this week at the EIA public hearings in Sofia, said:

“Our alternative waste management scenario that has been overlooked puts much more emphasis on the prevention and recycling of waste, in line with EU recycling priorities, than that which Sofia municipality is proposing. The municipality's scheme is heavily dependent on landfilling and burning refuse derived fuels in cement kilns outside Sofia, with clear threats to human health from pollution. Another indication of how inadequate this EIA process has been is that the experts involved have refused to even assess the hazards of burning this fuel. The attitude appears to be, if it's outside Sofia then it's not our problem. [2]

“The EIA report for the municipality's unsustainable approach to Sofia's waste is too toxic even for landfill, but it is looking more and more like a done deal. Constructive comments from NGOs on the plans have also been totally discounted. The EU's new Waste Framework Directive has set minimum 50 percent recycling rates for household waste by 2020, yet the Sofia scheme is unambitious, there is no way it can meet such a target and the Sofia authorities still believe they are due EU financial support!

“Sofia's waste crisis has rivaled that of Naples and EU funding is essential in such extreme circumstances. However, to support EU waste goals, EU money should support integrated waste management facilities where separate collection and high recycling rates are essential elements. Our proposals have these essential elements yet they have been chucked on the scrap heap by the authorities.”

For more information

Za Zemiata (EU funds and waste coordinator)/CEE Bankwatch Network
Mobile: +359 898 252 303
E-mail: hlebarov AT bankwatch.org

Notes for editors

[1] The European Commission will have the final say on whether or not to provide financial support to the Sofia waste management project. The Commission is responsible for the approval of any environmental project with total costs above EUR 25 million. Without a properly conducted EIA process for individual projects within the member states, the Commission cannot approve the disbursal of funds.

In October 2007, the European Commission initiated an infringement procedure against Bulgaria because of the illegal storage of mixed municipal waste in plastic bales in the open (currently around 600 000 tonnes) and the city's lack of adequate facilities for waste disposal.

[2] Sofia municipality's project proposal includes: two composting facilities (40 000 tonnes/year), a mechanical-biological treatment facility (410 000 tonnes/year), a landfill and a small waste water treatment plant – the project will treat 71 percent of Sofia waste in 2020 (and more than 87 percent of total waste produced in 2011).

The recycling contribution from this plant will be 6.98 percent of total waste produced in 2020 (630 000 tonnes/y), thus barely helping to achieve the any way low figure of 33 percent recycled waste in 2020 as optimistically foreseen by the municipality.

The NGO scenarios for waste managament in Sofia, which have also been submitted to the European Commission, involve binding targets for recycling of 50 percent as a minimum and rising to 75 percent, the omission of burning municipal waste and an extensive focus on prevention, reuse and recycling.

The proposed Sofia waste management project is one of 50 damaging projects planned or already underway in central and eastern Europe at a potential total cost to EU taxpayers of EUR 10 billion. More information is available at this online map from the Bankwatch website.