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Packaging Waste Management in Bulgaria

Packaging Waste Management in Bulgaria. Ivaylo Hlebarov waste coordinator EA Za Zemiata (For the Earth)/CEE Bankwatch hlebarov@bankwatch.org 2nd International Seminar on Sustainable Technology Development, June 2009, Barcelona,. Content. Legal framework and waste data collection

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Packaging Waste Management in Bulgaria

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  1. Packaging Waste Management in Bulgaria Ivaylo Hlebarov waste coordinator EA Za Zemiata (For the Earth)/CEE Bankwatch hlebarov@bankwatch.org 2nd International Seminar on Sustainable Technology Development, June 2009, Barcelona,

  2. Content • Legal framework and waste data collection • Packaging waste collection organisation and operation • Problems and measures to improve the separate collection • Problems with management of packaging waste • Measures for reaching the targets and improving the separate collection • Measures for improvement of separate collection systems • Treatment of municipal waste including packaging waste • Current and future trend in Sofia city • Attitudes of citizens, businesses and PWROs towards separate collection - about Sofia • Useful information

  3. Legal framework • legislative acts – primary and secondary legislation – Waste management act, ordinances etc. • National strategy for waste management 2009-2013 • National strategic plan for reduction of bio-waste going to landfills up to 2020. • Upcoming National waste prevention strategy – end of 2013 • Agreed memorandum for cooperation between Packaging Waste Recovery Organizations (PWRO) and ministry of Environment – so far not disclosed • Municipal plans for waste management for household waste or regional waste management plans

  4. Waste data collection • complicated, duplicated reporting - requirements in several ordinances and IPPC permits • lack of control over authenticity of the data collected. Often the information is incomplete, incorrect and doubtful. Waste categorisation and clear definition of recovery and disposal operations are also problematic • lack of legal requirements for data provision for certain types of waste, incl. construction waste, as well as for regular morphological analyses • Insufficient information from producers (wide spread waste). • lack of enough information about the trade within EU • lack of proper hardware and equipment in some regional inspectorates, • lack of adequate control from the relevant authorities over collection and reporting of data • lack of internal capacity to perform control and to imply penalties.

  5. Packaging waste collection organisation and operation • In the hands of mayors and councils define rules for all waste including packaging Three ways to fulfil the requirements/EU targets for collection, recycling and recovery of packaging waste: • the producer organises the collection, recycling, recovery and disposal of packaging waste on its own, does not pay product fees • the producer pays product fee to The Enterprise for Management of the Activities for Preservation of the Environment (EMAPE) – high fee, few enterprises have chosen this one • the producers are involved in collective organisation called Packaging Waste Recovery Organisation (PWRO – like Green Dot) and pay less compared to option 2 – most of the businesses have chosen this way – cheaper, less direct responsibilities, more than 5 PWROs. Around 80% of the companies.

  6. PWROs have signed contracts with municipalities to establish and manage the systems for separate collection of packaging waste. It has to be acknowledge that PWRO do not deal with separate collection of municipal waste, but only packaging waste. (kitchen waste, bulky waste, and certain waste streams are not covered by their operations) Separate collection of packaging waste first started in 2003 in smaller cities. Currently around 65 municipalities are covered by separate collection systems (total is 264). Packaging waste - targets

  7. Packaging waste collection - operation Use of packaging waste per capita in Bulgaria is 37% of the EU 25 level for the period 2004-2006. • Only 26 % of packages introduced in 2006 is meant to be reusable. • In 2006 use of packages is 56.06 kg/per inh. Decrease in glass. Many of the glass packaging used for beverages is throw away packaging

  8. PWRO's results vs individual's – on the market/recycledpaper-plastics-metals-glass-wood-composite (tonnes)

  9. Usage vs recycling of packaging waste – (Y) kg/inh 2006blue ------- pink(X) plastics-paper/cardboard-metal-wood-glass-others

  10. January 2009 July 2008

  11. Problems with separate waste collection (SWC) • Insufficient capacity of plastics recycling facilities • Inefficient separate collection of packaging waste from households (hazardous) • Insufficient capacity for pre-treatment of waste incl, sorting • Lack of stimulus for production of reusable packaging • Insufficient awareness among citizens and motivation for separate collection • Insufficient efforts of local authorities to implement separate collection of packaging waste and lack of effective cooperation between PWROs and local authorities • Lack of waste prevention and minimisation strategy for packaging waste • Moving from 3 bins system towards 2 bins system is Sofia city • Lack of deposit systems for glass packaging and/or plastic bottles • Bins are not really conveniently spread and in many of them is hard to put waste in (narrow holes)

  12. Measures for reaching the targets and improving the separate collection: • SWC systems in municipalities with fewer than 20 000 inh • Improving the systems for packaging waste in administrative buildings, trading/market sites, tourist and other sites. (office paper as part of the PWCS) • Developing of control systems for packaging waste collection from households, industry and commercial sector.. • Reducing the use of plastic bags trough economic instruments • In 2013 PWCS to cover 6.4 mln people (end of programme) • Introducing system for separate collection of hazardous packaging • Introducing of electronic register of entities which release packages and packaging materials in Bulgaria • Setting a quantitative target (kg/inh) for separate collection of packaging waste, depending on the type of settlements. • Improving the control over the implementation of municipal waste management programmes • Implementing of information campaigns targeting the consumers to make them aware of the benefits and functions of the systems for PWCS

  13. Measures for improvement of separate waste collection systems • Establishing of separate waste collection systems at source (in households) less than 5 000 inh. • Free bins for separate collection of packaging waste in commercial sites, public and administrative buildings, hotel complexes and households in areas with fewer than 5 000 inh. • Construction of additional pre-treatment facilities for packaging waste. • Optimising the amount and location of separate collection bins and the collection frequency • Introduction of specific and sufficiently high fee on wooden reusable packaging (?) • Implementation of awareness raising campaigns at national and regional level about the ways for separate collection,

  14. Treatment of municipal waste including packaging waste • Currently more than 95% of the municipal waste targeted for disposal is landfilled and 5 % is stored in plastic bales (Sofia municipality). • There are no prevention, reuse or recycling targets at national, regional or local level for municipal waste except for the packaging waste (required under the packaging directive directive) • Collection of packaging waste is done trough systems for separate collection – bins, as well as trough waste collection centres where mainly wastepickers (scavengers) are delivering big amount of waste for recycling – their contribution is about to decrease due to legislative changes, which is a mistake. • The system with bins is still contributing very little to the overall amount of waste recycled and recovered. Around 1/3 of the waste is suitable for recycling, 50% of the waste is paper. For the city of Sofia which produced roughly 400 000 t/y of municipal waste the 3 bins system is going to be downgraded to 2 bins system. • Current publicly available figures do not show differentiated amounts of the packaging waste that is recycled, recovered and/or disposed. It is known that 4 cement kilns have IPPC permit to burn alternative fuel (RDF) or other calorific waste, thus many of the waste collected by PWROs goes to cement kilns. Nevertheless PWROs are able to reach the targets laid down in the legislation when packaging waste is concerned.

  15. Current trend in Sofia city • Sofia is the biggest city with officially 1.3 mln people, but probably the real figure is around 2 mln. • In 2007 the total amount of municipal waste produced is 476 000 t/y of which 368 383 t/y is coming from households. • 7.46% of that waste is separately collected and only 0.98% is collected trough the system with bins (the other 6.48% is collected trough the centres for collection of recyclable waste.) These figures do not include the commercial sector. Roughly 22% of the waste in the sector is collected separately which is significantly higher than the 7.46% from households. • There are 4 PWROs currently operating in Sofia, with 4 sorting installations for packaging waste – capacity around 106 500 t/y. Another 4 sorting installations are for mixed municipal waste.

  16. Future trend in Sofia city The future waste management • An Integrated system for municipal waste management. Approx. 186 mln eur EU Funds contribution • Total waste in 2020 - 630 403 t/y (both sectors). 6.98* % been recycled in 2020 • The “system” will treat 450 000 t/y of municipal waste of which only 40 000 t/y is separately collected green and kitchen waste. • The rest 410 000 t/y is mixed waste going to mechanical-biological plant, resulting in • 40% waste going to landfill, • 31% going to be burned in cement kilns (Refuse derived fuel) • 19% low quality compost. • Focus is not on prevention, reuse, recycle. Claimed recycling 35*% more precise calculations show it is around 32-33%, far from 50% as in WFD (2008/98/EC) • NGO proposed similar system, but increased recycling up to 50% (fulfil WFD) and also not producing RDF. Proposal is under detailed development and is also considered for climate impact assessment.

  17. Attitudes of citizens, businesses and PWROs towards separate collection in Sofia - Pt 1 Main conclusions for citizens (2007): • citizens prefer a system with 3 or more bins, rather than 2 bins system or door to door collection. When one adds the criterion for participation then the ranking is: 3 bins (87%); 2 bins (77%); more than 3 bins (72%) and door to door collection (35%) • 90% of the people want more and more convenient places for separate collection bins • above 80% of citizens recommend better information campaigns as well as incentives and sanctions as measures for better functioning of the system for separate collection of waste.

  18. Attitudes of citizens, businesses and PWROs towards separate collection in Sofia - Pt 2 Main conclusions for business: • roughly 30% does not participate in the separation of waste, around 36.7% are active or very active • biggest problems – overfilled containers; odour from separately collected waste before going to the bins; long distance to bins; in general external problems are bigger than internal (internal organisation of the waste separation) • the business prefers system with 3 bins compared to 2 or more bins, lowest ranking for door to door collection; separate collection of construction waste is recommended

  19. Attitudes of citizens, businesses and PWROs towards separate collection in Sofia - Pt 3 Main conclusions from Packaging waste recovery organisations Problems: • not clear model and rules for the system of separate collection • anonymity of waste producers (citizens) and the amount of mixed waste in the bins are big problems • information campaigns of PWRO are confusing and not focused • the participation of Sofia Municipality in PWRO's awareness raising campaigns is lacking or very low • lack of adequate control from the municipality of the implementation of the requirements for separate collection • low participation of the citizens

  20. Attitudes of citizens, businesses and PWROs towards separate collection in Sofia - Pt 4 Recommendations from PWRO: • pay as you throw for calculating the fees for business and citizens participating actively in separate waste collection systems • two of four PWROs consider 3 bins system as better than 2 – the other two prefer 2 bins system • better regulations – responsibility of the municipality • better information campaigns • financial sanctions for not participating in the system NOTE: There is also data about the attitudes of the municipal administration, that are not listed here

  21. Welcome to reality – May 2008

  22. Useful information Polluters pay principle - mainly trough waste tax on citizens – goes to municipality's budget, - The waste fee is determined proportionally to the tax assessment of the land property (apartment, house, etc). Households, trade centres and enterprises are not stimulated at all in waste prevention, separate collection and recovery of the waste as they do not pay on the basis of quantity of produced waste. In principal, the fees are determined on basis of the current municipal expenditures and do not include the costs for closure of the existing landfills, design of new disposal facilities and installation etc. The majority of the Municipal Councils do not support the increase of the municipal waste fees due to social reasons. Producer responsibility – it is reflected in fees paid by producers for the products they release on the market which generated wide spread waste (packaging waste, tyres, batteries, oils, WEEE etc) and the fee should be used to treat these waste streams. It is hard to see in what other ways producer responsibility principle is applied in reality. Extended producer responsibility – lacking in the legislative documents, although there is mentioning about deposit systems for reusable packaging

  23. Thank you for your patience and attention Ivaylo Hlebarov hlebarov@bankwatch.org

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