Project summary
Place of execution: Municipality Pomorie
Budget: € 1 549 367.49
Funding from the EU: € 929 620.49
Duration: 01.07.2023 – 30.06.2026
Project partners:
Municipality Pomorie – coordinator
Municipality Pomorie is located in the South-Eastern region in Bulgaria on an area of 413,189 км². The municipality includes 17 settlements, of which 3 cities and 14 villages. The population is 25 509 people (NSI, 31.12.2022), with over 50% of them living in the city of Pomorie, which is the municipal administrative centre.
The city of Pomorie is located on the Black Sea coast on the narrow rocky peninsula of the same name, 3.5 km into the Black Sea, on the northwest coast of the Burgas Bay. From the south, east and northeast, the city is surrounded by the sea, and from the north – by Lake Pomorie, which is a protected area. The city is a famous seaside, spa and rehabilitation resort with warm mineral waters and tourism is a structural branch of the local economy.
www.pomorie.bg
Club “Economika 2000”
Club “Economika 2000” is a high-tech consulting, research and training Bulgarian non-governmental organisation with over 30-year experience, gradually and carefully established, accumulated and enriched. The Club carries out socio-economic research, provides consultations, organizes and manages training programs, creates opportunities for debates and wide exchange of ideas for the achievement of sustainable development.
The Club has many years of experience in providing consulting assistance in the field of waste to a large number of Bulgarian municipalities and to central government institutions such as the Ministry of Environment and Water, the National Trust EcoFund, etc.
www.club2000.org
Theoremus AD
THEOREMUS is a leading private IT company in the field of development, implementation and maintenance of software products and solutions. The THEOREMUS team specializes in working with contextual problems in cities using research methodologies, prototyping and agile solutions focused on data and how we work with it.
The THEOREMUS solutions in the Ecology vertical ensure a complete Smart Waste Management System, combining the necessary hardware with a software platform for monitoring and automating waste collection activities and an analytical and predictive platform providing tools, processes and a team for analysis and optimization of the activities. The solutions combine technological components for direct weight and volume measurement of waste in waste containers with an automatic inventory system.
www.theoremus.com
Ecobulpack Bulgaria AD
ECOBULPACK is a company established in 2004, which operates in the field of environmentally friendly waste management in Bulgaria. The Company is a national packaging waste recycling organization with a permit issued by the Minister of Environment and Water of Bulgaria and is one of the four national collective organizations in the country working under the scheme “extended producer responsibility”. ECOBULPACK undertakes the obligations on packaging waste recovery of more than 4000 companies from various economic sectors in Bulgaria and successfully met the regulatory recycling targets for packaging waste as per Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste every year since its establishment. The Company maintains separate collection systems in a range of Bulgarian municipalities.
www.ecobulpack.bg
Zero Waste Italy
ZERO WASTE ITALY is a non-governmental organization established in 2009. It has the primary task of connecting the Italian Zero Waste initiatives with the European and global networks of this movement. It is complementary and non-competitive with the Italian Zero Waste Network, mainly developing the application side of the 10 STEPS TOWARDS ZERO WASTE as defined by the International Charter OF Naples of the Zero Waste International Alliance. It collaborates with a myriad of local groups providing consultations, skills and training.
www.zerowasteitaly.org
The Context
Bulgarian municipalities face significant challenges to meet the waste targets set in the European and national legislation:
- 65% in weight of preparing for reuse and recycling by 2035
- maximum 10% sent to landfill by 2035
Bulgaria has a much lower level of household waste recycling compared to the EC average. Currently, disposal in landfills registers the highest rate among the waste treatment methods, while the recycling and recovery rate is low. Biodegradable waste is not yet collected separately. The basic principle “Polluter pays” is still not applied in the country. Residents pay a fee for household waste, which does not take into account their actual waste generation and does not stimulate the reduction and separate collection of waste.
All these gaps apply to municipality Pomorie as well. The municipality clearly understands the urgent need of changes in the way of waste management and in 2020 planned to introduce a comprehensive new approach to household waste management, applying the good practice of municipality Parma, Italy. Due to a lack of clear guidance, internal capacity and resources, the municipality developed a project and applied for grant funding under the LIFE Programme.
Objectives
The project specific objectives are to:
Actions
Strengthening the capacity for project implementation
Study the experience of Parma, Italy
Analyses of the current situation in municipality Pomorie
Design of the new system for waste management
Surveys of the attitudes of households and businesses
Elaboration of a Communication Strategy
Consultations with stakeholders
Educational actions and campaigns
Development, testing and implementation of an ITC platform for waste management
Ensure technical equipment
Pilot door-to-door collection
Analysis of the results of the pilot testing
Preparatory actions
Building the capacity for management of the new system
Implementation of the new scheme in the whole city
Adoption of PAYT waste fee
Development of a Sustainability, Exploitation and Replication Plan
Promotion of results to catalyse the replication of the project approach by other municipalities
Capacity building of stakeholders