Since separate refuse collections for recycling started in Bulgaria there have been many questions about where the rubbish goes and, more importantly, if it is indeed being recycled. The Sofia Echo nterviewed representatives of various recycling organisations to find out the route the material to be recycled takes and what happens to it when it gets there.

Bulecopack, Repack AD, Ecobulpack AD, Ecopack AD and Reco Pack AD are among the companies involved in refuse utilisation, as they refer to the process, in Bulgaria. To put recycling bins in a certain village, town or city district, a company has to win the contract with the municipality.

Repack ecology department manager Todor Nedkov told The Sofia Echo that Repack uses a three-bin system: one for paper recycling, one for plastic and metal and a third for glass. Repack provides recycling bins to 500 000 people in 13 municipalities, which include two Sofia districts, Blagoevgrad, Yambol and Sandanski.

The company owns its own lorries for collecting the rubbish to be recycled. The actual collection process is sometimes contracted out to another company, who then rent Repack’s lorries. The paper and plastic and metal bins are usually emptied twice a week and the glass bin once a week.

After collection, the rubbish for recycling is taken to a “base” where it is manually separated. “All types of cardboard, paper, plastic bottles and glass packaging, cans and aluminium is used, as well as plastic shopping bags and foil,” Nedkov said. At the moment composite packaging, used for milk, fruit juice, etc, and yoghurt cartons are not recycled but research is being done so that, hopefully, one day these materials will be able to be recycled and reused as well.

After the rubbish has been separated, Repack and all other refuse utilisation companies transport it to the relevant recycling facility. They sell the materials to this facility for re-use.

“The whole activity of separate waste collection is not profitable,” Nedkov said. He said, according to the Waste Management Act, every packaging company has to either pay a fee to the Ministry of Environment and Water Affairs (MOEW) or pay a refuse utilisation company to collect its rubbish.

“The packaging companies prefer to pay us because our fees are three times lower than the amount MOEW charges,” Nedkov said. “Three quarters of our income comes from these fees,” he said. The remaining revenue is from the sale of the materials collected for recycling. However, every company involved in refuse utilisation is obliged to put all its profits back in the recycling cycle. In other words, the profits are “recycled” into recycling.

An Ecobulpack representative told The Sofia Echo that the glass recycling factories in Bulgaria are in Elena and Sofia (the Druzhba glass factory). Cardboard is reprocessed at a plant in Nikopol and paper is recycled in a number of places including Kostenets, Belovo and Pazardjik. There are facilities for recycling plastic packaging at Kostinbrod, Yambol and Assenovgrad, among others. Metal is reprocessed at Stomana Pernik factory and is also exported by Ecobulpack.

In 2006 and 2007, Ecobulpack placed 19 800 recycling bins all over Bulgaria and it has 12 separating facilities. In 2004, 2005 and 2006 combined, Ecobulpack recycled 50 698 tons of paper, 7850 tons of metal, 13 133 tons of plastic and 13 515 tons of glass. This year the company has provided recycling services to 2.2 million Bulgarians.

Ecobulpack is the only company to use a two-bin system; a yellow bin for paper, plastic and metal and a green one for glass packaging. After the rubbish is collected it is taken to separating facilities where it is cleaned and the useful materials are removed. The dirty and unusable materials are taken to a landfill site.

Ecobulpack has two separating installations: in Sliven and Gabrovo. In 2007 it started building five more sites: in Sofia, Rousse, Pazardjik, Turgovishte and Plovdiv. In Gabrovo the separating installation employs about 20 people. The site can also bale the rubbish. In Sofia, Ecobulpack has built the first facility in Bulgaria that can separate and recycle glass. It has a capacity of five tons an hour.

The company to receive the first licence to collect and recycle rubbish in Bulgaria, in 2004, was Ecopack AD. It uses the three-bin system and the firm’s green, yellow and blue bins can be seen standing next to each other all over Sofia city centre.

An Ecopack representative told The Sofia Echo the company uses its own 21 lorries, and others rented from different companies, to transport the rubbish. Sometimes, Ecopack subcontracts this work to other companies.

Each lorry has to make three different journeys to collect the different types of recycling because they are not equipped to deal with the different materials on one load.

Ecopack has provided a free phone line for people to report information if they see this system not being used properly, to ask questions or to provide ideas on how to make the process more efficient. The number is 0800 15 253.

All glass packaging has to be washed and the company does not recycle window glass. It transports all the unusable rubbish, along with the other waste that they find in their bins, to the landfill site daily.

Ecopack has five separating facilities: Gorna Oryhovitsa, Bozhurishte (Sofia), Stara Zagora, Plovdiv and Pazardjik. By the end of 2007, it is planning to open three more sites: in Varna, Pleven and another one in Sofia, which will also have a baling machine.

Ecopack collects recycling from three different sources: industrial, trade and households. The company provides its services to businesses because, according to the law, big companies must organise the removal of their own waste and it is often cheaper for them to use a refuse utilisation firm than do it themselves.

Ecopack has contracts with 27 recycling facilities in Bulgaria. The company aims to recycle the rubbish as close to the point of collection as possible. Ecopack also said there are no factories that only recycle the rubbish. The factories also produce products from the recycled materials; glass is fully recycled while other new products are made from a combination of new and recycled materials. These in turn, when they are finished with, are thrown away to be recycled and the whole process down the recycling route starts again.