Urban Waste Accounts for 7-10 Percent of Garbage Generated in EU

Municipal waste is about 7- 10% of the total volume of waste generated in the European Union. This is said in a report on the SWAN project "Balkan Waste Reuse Platform", presented by the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce.

The report points out that a guiding principle of European waste management policy, including municipal waste, is the 'polluter pays' principle. According to this principle, the costs of waste management are borne by the original causative agent of the waste, by the current or previous holders of the waste.

The aim of the report is to identify possible legal difficulties for businesses to implement in their production activities various options of waste reuse chains. Transnational cooperation between economic operators is also being considered in order to highlight the problems and to offer guidance on changing legislation in the field.

Some of the most significant problems identified are related to by-products and end-of-waste criteria. The development of single criteria at European level, for by-products and the end of waste, would substantially facilitate and stimulate the industrial symbiosis between economic operators established in different Member States.

Without uniform European criteria, a collision between national legal frameworks may occur and this will hinder the industrial symbiosis between operators from different Member States.

Municipal waste management policies are the other identified problem, both at European Commission and Bulgaria level, researchers report.

Accountability for waste management is an important part of the new EU requirements, say the report's authors. According to them, in Bulgaria the use of data carried mainly on paper poses risks of errors and inaccuracy of the...