BULGARIA HAS BEEN PRODUCING 20% LESS GARBAGE IN THE LAST 20 YEARS
Bulgaria has reduced the generated household waste per person by over 20% in the last 20 years. The data were announced by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ralitsa Zhekova - a lecturer at Varna Free University and head of the Regional Agency for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. This happened during the second working meeting for the project "Knowledge of the circular economy in the Black Sea basin CIRCLECON - BSB 1021", in which VFU "Chernorizets Hrabar" is the leading organization. The meeting was attended by representatives of Bulgarian universities, NGOs and businesses, as well as partners from Greece, Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey.
The Dean of the Faculty of International Economics and Administration Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eleonora Tankova presented the educational and scientific activities of VFU "Chernorizets Hrabar" in the field of circular economy. The training of the second class of masters in circular economics, who are scholarship holders of the Board of Trustees of the University, has already started. 'The master's degree programme Circular Economy at Varna Free University is the first of its kind in the European Union', said George Kremlis, Honorary Director of the Directorate General for Environment of the European Commission, under whose patronage the master's degree programme is.
Processes, analyzes and data from a regional study on the state of the circular economy in the country and Varna region were presented during the meeting.
Bulgaria generates 407 kg of household waste per person, which is significantly less than the average citizen of the European Union, who generates an average of 502 kg of household waste. This is partly due to differences in consumption patterns and economic wealth, and partly to the way household goods are gathered and managed.
It became clear from the study that our country as an EU member aims at developing a circular economy in which materials and resources stay in the economy as long as possible, and waste disposal is the last option for their management. According to Eurostat, the recycling rate of municipal waste in the EU for the following years - 2017, 2018 and 2019 is 47.7%. However, Bulgaria is in the average values with 31.5%, which has slightly been decreasing for the last three years.
Representatives of state and regional institutions, businesses and non-governmental organizations, who took part in the survey, agreed on the importance of the participation of young people in the circular economy, as they are the most active ones on the topic. The participants in the survey proposed that the introduction of tax and financial incentives that would provoke compliance with the measures and national programmes to support the circular economy should be discussed. Among the main problems, they pointed out the lack of data and suggested better public awareness, which will result in a change in the way we think and work.
Within the frames of the project "Knowledge of the circular economy in the Black Sea basin CIRCLECON - BSB 1021" a multilingual online training platform will be developed, meetings and trainings will be held.
Assoc. Prof. Eleonora Tankova, PhD - Dean of the Faculty of International Economics and Administration