What the waste plant is currently doing is an environmental crime. This was said by the chairwoman of the Health and Social Policy Committee of the Sofia Municipal Council, Vanya Grigorova, in the program "Bulgaria, Europe and the World in Focus" on Radio "Focus".
Currently, tons of RDF and plastic are stored illegally on the future Site 5 of the Sofia waste treatment plant. "The very fact that these thousands of tons of waste were hidden behind masses of earth indicates that the management of the plant knows very well that what it has done is illegal and extremely unacceptable. There is no cover there, there is no built-in system for draining the infiltrate. Currently, this poisonous liquid is seeping into the ground, and the Sofia Field has very high groundwater levels, which are used for irrigation and domestic purposes“,“, Grigorova noted.
The plant management must take responsibility for its actions,” she was categorical. The plant has not reported its activities from mid-April to the end of 2024. "The plant has not even reported the amounts of waste received, so we do not know how much waste there is, how much was exported in the form of RDF, how much of it was recycled. We have no data“, the municipal councilor pointed out.
The burning of RDF waste must take place on site at the plant, and this can happen if the third phase of the plant's construction is completed. "Currently, the household waste of Sofia residents arrives, it is separated, RDF is made, which is then loaded onto trucks and taken to various cement plants in the country, i.e. we organize a garbage excursion. This should be done on site at the plant, so that transportation costs are not paid and so that Sofia residents can use this energy from the combustion of RDF. The energy generated in this way can be used for heating and water heating – something that is done in a number of cities in Western Europe", said Vanya Grigorova.
According to her, the decision of the mayor of Sofia Municipality for the plant not to accept waste from hospitals due to the mixing of hazardous waste with household waste is a last resort. "This means that Sofia hospitals will be buried with waste. These are health facilities that will be drowning in garbage. A completely unacceptable decision by Mr. Terziev, not for the first time. "I don't see why it is necessary to make such scandalous proposals and steps on the part of Terziev, when it is clear which hospital has violated the law. The waste plant knows which hospital it is, because the hazardous medical waste in question is stored in specialized envelopes with the name of the hospital written on them," Grigorova commented.