Through active communication and collaboration with local authorities in Bulgaria, SMART WASTE Project partner BAMEE noticed willingness to continue with efforts towards making their municipalities a more attractive place for citizens and businesses by investing in demonstration projects related to development of new, non-traditional successful waste management interventions.
Surfing on this trend, BAMEE ran two surveys among several municipalities in Bulgaria. The first survey evaluated their readiness to introduce circular economy concept within the local administration and the local system. The second survey enquired about their interest to introduce a Deposit Return System (DRS) for packaging. The surveys proved the need to make several important steps for successful introduction of DRS, including extensive public discussion with stakeholders, adoption of regulatory changes by the competent state authorities, information campaign and training of all obligated persons. The surveys also showed that more and more local authorities see the benefits that circularity and DRS integrated in the waste management systems could bring.
Furthermore, taking into consideration the outcomes of the surveys and the discussions held during BAMEE’s National Assembly, it has become clear that there is a need of the municipal ecology experts to be trained regularly on latest developments and changes in strategic documents on waste management as well as to get trainings on how to collect information on waste management, as well as how to provide and analyse data from waste information data base (e.g. on the National Waste Information System, others). BAMEE will continue its active collaboration with local authorities to contribute to effective waste management systems and introduction of the circular economy principles on local and regional level in Bulgaria.
