Kazanlak is the first municipality in Bulgaria that has undergone training for the new waste tax model

“The new basis for determining the household waste fee and the template for determining the plan-account for the “garbage” fee is the topic that was discussed by the Kazanlak Municipal Council, specialists from the Municipal Administration, mayors of settlements in the Municipality and experts from the NSORB on outsourced training in Burgas, it was also attended by the mayor of Kazanlak, Galina Stoyanova “Focus” from the local administration.

New rules are introduced with the draft Ordinance on the procedure for preparing and the model of the plan-account for the relative costs of performing the activities of providing the services for which the fee for household waste is paid and for the method of calculating the amount of the fee.

Next year, there will be three options for paying the garbage fee based on the amount of trash thrown away. Each municipality will decide which method to apply. One is with bags, the other is based on the capacity of the garbage containers, and the third is per person in the household. This is recorded in the normative document, which is part of the reform of the waste management system. The goal of the system is to reduce the volume of landfilled waste and increase the share of recyclable materials.

The municipal council can adopt different bases for individual settlements, for individual zones within them, as well as for different categories of obligees. The Ordinance lays down different options for calculating the municipal waste (MSW) fee, according to the characteristics of the settlement. Each municipality will itself choose an option, according to the specific region, district, village. For example, if the area is densely populated and with large residential buildings, the fee should be calculated according to the volume of the container and the frequency of removal, and in areas with predominantly single-family houses – in personal buckets or bags.

This means that in one neighborhood it will be possible to pay with bags, in another – per person of a household, and in a third – the capacity of garbage containers and the frequency of their removal. According to the Ordinance, the number of bags for the year for a given property will be determined according to the analysis performed for the amount of household waste generated for that property.

The municipal council will be able to determine a minimum number of bags to be purchased by residents. This will be based on an analysis of the minimum amount of household waste generated by one service user in a given settlement or area. If the charge is paid on a bin basis, it will be apportioned according to the common shares of the residents of the property to which the bin is assigned.

When calculating the fee based on the number of users, the number of all persons using the property will be taken into account. This includes owners, tenants, occupiers, current addressees, etc. If the residents do not have a current address, the permanent address is taken into account. The annual amount of the fee will be distributed to the persons liable for the property depending on the ideal parts owned by them. Information on the number of users of the service, as well as any change thereof, will be collected in each property automatically or by submitting a declaration. When calculating the fee based on bags and containers, it will be possible to differentiate based on the type of waste – paper, plastic, glass, metals, bio-waste. For this purpose, the Municipal Council must adopt a special Ordinance.

Currently, the municipalities are obliged to provide receptacles for the collection of household waste and to organize their transportation to treatment plants or landfills for disposal.

The Municipality of Kazanlak is the first in the country to organize training and discussion in connection with the new Ordinance on determining the municipal waste fee.