site.btaNAMRB Executive Director Calls for More Coloured Bins and Full Recycling Coverage

The number of colour-coded recycling bins needs to be increased, collection intervals improved, and citizens must be provided with full coverage of infrastructure for separate waste collection, Silvia Georgieva, Executive Director of the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria (NAMRB), during a discussion panel on waste management reform at the Annual Meeting of Local Authorities in the Albena resort complex.

Georgieva noted that, under the current Waste Management Act, systems for separate waste collection apply only to settlements with populations over 5,000 people. “We propose lowering that threshold to 1,000 people,” she said.

More bins, more frequent collection, and most importantly financial compensation for municipalities that commit to expanding the system are necessary, she emphasized.

Georgieva also proposed amendments to the Local Taxes and Fees Act to introduce a transitional period of 3 to 5 years for the phased implementation of new methods for calculating the waste collection fee. These methods would vary by municipality, zone, or locality.

“The fairest option would be for municipalities that are ready to start applying the new model as of January 1, 2026,” she said. “For the others, it should be allowed to continue using the property tax assessment method, but for no longer than three years during which time municipalities should make the necessary investments.”

This transition period, Georgieva added, could be supported through targeted financial resources from the state budget or the Operational Programme Environment.

At the opening of the Annual Meeting of Local Authorities on Sunday, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said that only 71 municipalities in Bulgaria have declared readiness to implement the polluter pays principle in waste management.

The polluter pays model means that citizens are charged only for the waste placed in the gray bins. “The less waste you generate in the gray bins, the lower your household waste fee will be,” explained Silvia Georgieva.

She stressed that for this system to work, waste separation infrastructure must be significantly improved so that every taxpayer has access to containers for sorting their waste. “If we don’t give them that option, we end up taxing them unfairly,” Georgieva said.

She also clarified that the property owner remains the liable taxpayer for waste fees. “If there are ten occupants living in one property, the owner is taxed for all ten, not each individual tenant,” Georgieva added.