Employers and trade unions demand a new Waste Management Law

“In the shortest possible term, up to September 25, a working group at the Ministry of Environment and Water (MEW) to be set up in charge of drafting a new Waste Management Law. It should include experts from the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism, from the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, and representatives of NGOs,” suggested officials from 9 NGOs and the nationally presented trade unions. Late on Wednesday, they signed a joint statement stipulating these requirements, reported experts from the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA).

Besides the BIA, the Bulgarian Association of Metallurgical Industry (BAMI), the Bulgarian Association of Recycling, the Civic Initiative of Traders in Ferrous and Nonferrous Metal Scrap and its Recycling, the Bulgarian Branch Chamber Phoenix Resources, Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), Podkrepa Confederation of Labour (CL), the Trade Union Federation Metalitsi at CITUIB, the National Federation Metallurgy at the Podkrepa CL backed the document.

“The bill, as submitted, does not solve, but exacerbates the accumulated problems in the management of widespread, hazardous, industrial and domestic waste, metal scrap and other. Evaluation of the impact of the bill on the budget and all parties concerned was not carried out, which will lead to serious problems for the private businesses,” commented experts from BIA.

The main problems, stipulated in the statement are related to the requirement the sites for scrap to be located in municipalities with already adopted General Development Plans. Just 30% of the municipalities in Bulgaria are in line with this regulation, specified experts from the organizations. Furthermore, the requirement that the purchase of ferrous and nonferrous metals must be carried out with a document of origin would lead to shortage of material.

According Politimi Paunova, Executive Director of the BAMI, no more than 5% to 10% of the processed metals in the metallurgical industry are supposed to be acquired by abuse. She warned that the metallurgy, which is a major exporter and has a positive trade balance of around BGN 2 bn, would suffer financial loss as a result of the reduced share of secondary processed metals.

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