The criminal procedure was closed after Bulgaria reclaimed all the old landfills

The European Commission closed the criminal procedure against Bulgaria after our country completed the closure and reclamation of all old landfills and fulfilled its obligations under the Waste Landfill Directive.

The decision of the EC is from April 24 of this year. and it comes after last December our country reported that all 113 landfills subject to the 2015 EU Court ruling had been closed and rehabilitated. On November 17, 2023, the reclamation of the last non-compliant municipal landfill was also completed. The commission checked the implementation of the completed reclamation activities of all 113 municipal landfills.

By closing the criminal procedure, Bulgaria avoided the payment of serious financial sanctions that threatened our country if it did not fulfill the requirements and did not remedy the violations of EU law in the field of waste disposal.

The results of landfill closure and reclamation are limiting environmental pollution to a minimum, preventing potential contamination of water sources, capturing and removing landfill gas safely and controllably from the body of the landfill, improving the living conditions of the population.

The purpose of landfill closure and reclamation is to strengthen the terrain on which waste was accumulated and to ensure maximum sustainability and isolation of the waste. Protection against leachate penetration into the water is provided, the release of odors and dust particles, as well as the scattering of plastics, paper, etc., are stopped. light fractions.

With the decision of the EU Court of Justice of July 16, 2015, Bulgaria was condemned for not closing 113 non-compliant municipal waste landfills by July 2009. In the autumn of 2021, the European Commission warned that the country us to be brought before the Court of the EU for the payment of significant financial sanctions due to the still unrecovered 43 landfills for non-hazardous waste out of the 113 – the subject of the criminal procedure.