Sofia Scatters Waste in Four Depots Around Bulgaria

The waste depot at Tsalapitsa near Plovdiv has accepted 100 000 tonnes of garbage from Sofia. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian cabinet has decided that part of the bales of waste from Sofia should be scattered in four waste depots in the country.

According to a solution, adopted Tuesday by the Council of Ministers, the Bulgarian town of Lovech should receive 40,000 tons of waste, the town of Karlovo – 60,000 tons, the village of Tsalapitsa in the region of Plovdiv – 30,000 tons and the town of Sevlievo – 20,000 tons of waste from Sofia.

The bales of waste should be transported until March 31, 2011. Additional money from the state budget will not be spent on the deposit and the transportation would be covered by the Sofia municipality.

According to the Waste Act, the cabinet might decide to use 10% of the free capacity of waste depots, which have been built with more than 50% state funding.

The four waste depots that have been chosen by the Parliament comply with this requirement.

"There has to be a solution of the municipal councils, the towns have to agree and there has to be a contract between the municipalities for the price of the deposit," said Petar Kurumbashev, MP from the left-wing Coalition for Bulgaria.

The mayors of the city of Plovdiv and the town of Sevlievo have announced they do not agree with the decision of the Parliament.

"I stated long ago my position on the Sofia waste – we should not accept a gram of it anymore, after the government lied to us about the compensations for the previous 100,000 tons of waste we received at Tsalapitsa," said the mayor of Plovdiv, Slavcho Atanasov.

He added that the government's position was "impudent".

"Plovdiv should stop solving Sofia's waste problems for free," Atanasov said.

The mayor of Sevlievo, Yordan Stoykov, has also stated that the solution of the Council of Ministry was unacceptable and that it would create many ecological problems.

On the other hand, the mayor of Lovech, Mincho Kazandzhiev, has announced the acceptance of the Sofia waste. According to him, it was natural that in times of crisis the state is looking for a solution waste depots that have already been built and that the rest of the country should be supportive.

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