Amendments to the Waste Act to render most scrap yards illegal

Raya Atanasova

Two-thirds of Bulgarian settlements would remain without sites for waste from electrical and electronic equipment, automobiles and batteries, the Bulgarian Association of Recycling (BAR) warned. “The new amendments to the Waste Act, approved by the parliamentary Environment Committee are not only aimed at reducing the number of sites for ferrous and nonferrous metal scrap but would practically ban these on 77% of the country’s territory,” BAR wrote in a letter. The reason is that according to the legislative amendments, scrap yards may exist only in towns where general development plans have been approved. In Bulgaria, however, only 33% of the municipalities have such plans.

According to Violeta Kostova, Chairwoman of BAR, the new requirement would leave Burgas, Plovdiv and Pernik without scrap yards. The existing scrap stations operating in compliance with all the requirements would also be rendered illegal and should, therefore, be closed. As a result, businesses would be severely hit.

“In order to reduce abuse and theft, the number of scrap yards must be dramatically reduced. Moreover, it is high time for municipalities to adopt local development plans,” Environment Minister Nona Karadjova commented to Klassa. According to BAR, more than 850 companies in Bulgaria are licensed to trade in ferrous and nonferrous metal scrap, while there are some 3,500 licensed scrap yards in the country. Annual sales in the sector amounted to some BGN 1 bn in 2010.

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