Why care?

As a new EU Member State, Bulgaria is facing the challenges of the practical implementation of EU legislation in the waste sector. Economic development and increase in GDP are directly connected to waste generation:

Figure 1. Municipal waste collection 2000-07.

Figure 2. GDP and Waste generation 2004-07.

Thus increasing the impact on the environment NSI: http://www.nsi.bg/ORPDOCS/Ecology_2.1.xls). The landfilling of municipal solid waste can be considered as a loss of possible resources such as materials and energy, which could be used as an index for sustainable consumption and effectiveness of a certain level. There are a few examples in Europe of the decoupling of GDP and increasing amount of municipal waste (Belgium and the Netherlands); these good practices could be implemented in other countries as well. Figure 1 presents the increase in municipal waste collecting systems.