On May 15, a new plant for processing household refuse opened in Sofia’s neighbourhood of Filipovtsi. Ecobulpack, a company set up to collect, recycle and process household refuse, invested more than 10 million leva in the new plant, the company said in a statement.
Using refuse from its multi-coloured bins throughout the city, which collect packaging waste by type, Ecobulpack will process glass, paper and plastic waste. The plant was built in 10 months and will provide 2000 new jobs.
The opening of the new plant was attended by Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov, Parliament environment and waters committee chairperson Georgi Bozhinov and Deputy Environment Minister Atanas Kostadinov.
The plant has an annual processing capacity of 140 000 tons - 100 000 tons for its paper and plastic line and 40 000 tons for glass.
However, it would not be able to process the entire refuse generated by Sofia, which, according to mayor Boyko Borissov, is 750 tons daily, for a total 275 000 tons every year. Even that figure is not certain, with refuse collection firms in Sofia billing the City Hall for 1000 tons daily in 2006 and 2007.
That has prompted Hristo Angelichin, municipal councillor for Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria, to claim that the three refuse collection companies, all owned by private equity investor Equest, were billing the city for refuse that did not exist. The discrepancy meant that Sofia City Hall had overpaid the firms 10 million leva over the past two years for refuse collection and storage, Angelichin said.
Borissov hit back, saing that the investigations carried out by the financial police found no irregularities over that period of time. Angelichin's conclusions were wrong because they were drawn using incomplete information, the City Hall said in a statement.
