site.btaGERB-UDF Municipal Councilors File Report to Prosecution Service about Irregularities at Sofia Garbage Plant

The Sofia Municipal Council GERB-UDF group has filed a report to the prosecution service about irregularities at the Sofia garbage plant, the group chair Anton Hekimyan said at a briefing in the Sofia Municipality on Tuesday.

Hekimyan stressed that inspections are underway by the Regional Environment and Water Inspectorate and the Environment and Water Ministry. "Last week, during an inspection at the plant, we discovered a huge unregulated dump of recyclable waste, RDF bales, which instead of being in the cement plants, are rotting in the rain," he said, adding that an urgent inspection by the prosecution service should be carried out immediately.

"Let us all go there again, if necessary tomorrow together with the media, to see how this dump is being cleaned and where the illegal garbage goes," Hekimyan said, noting that GERB had received a half-hearted promise that the garbage would be taken out and handed over to the responsible companies.

Hekimyan reported that he and his colleagues had visited the plant and the surrounding area on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. "Small trucks are loaded by excavators and these trucks are directly buried in cells 1, 2, 3, 4, they are directly deposited in the capital's dump, which is being filled up completely illegally," Hekimyan stressed. He stated that Sofia Mayor Vassil Terziev is trying to cover up a crime with another crime.

"The capital's garbage, for which we all pay, is spread around the plant and is illegally piled up at the landfill. The drone we launched yesterday discovered a second illegal landfill 300 metres from the first," he said.

GERB-UDF municipal councilor Vanya Tagareva recalled that the GERB-UDF group requested an extraordinary meeting of the Municipal Council, which will be held on Friday. "We hear about the revocation of licenses of waste collection companies, and if this happens, who will then remove the containers with waste," she asked. 

On April 1, Health Minister Silvi Kirilov warned that there is a huge risk of an epidemic due to Sofia's municipal waste treatment plant decision to stop taking waste from hospitals. The plant justified its decision with having found that household waste had been mixed with hazardous medical waste from hospitals. Terziev refuted Kirilov's warning. An on-site inspection established violations, Terziev reported and added that it would be better to have the authorities inspect not the garbage processing plant but the garbage collection companies instead.