Pay as you throw

The Greek Tourism Confederation Institute (INSETE) is calling on the state to introduce a pay-as-you-throw system, under which the amount that hotels and other tourism businesses pay in municipal taxes will be based on the amount of trash they produce, in a bid to bolster better waste management practices.

The payment of a "garbage fee" changes dramatically. The current principle on which the municipality's waste of garbage was formed is based on the tax assessment of the property, but this method remains in the past. Instead, the polluter pays principle is introduced. Such a decision was taken today by the Council of Ministers, which approved amendments to the Local Taxes and Fees Act.

Bulgaria's National Council for Tripartite Cooperation has proposed new options for calculating the garbage fee in Bulgaria.

If the new rules become a reality, municipalities will have to choose between three options for calculating the fee, bTV reported.