SWOT analysis of the legislation and infrastructure for separate collection of households waste in Bulgaria

The Waste Framework Directive introduces a number of issues aimed at preventing waste generation and stimulating recycling, setting a target for waste to be used as a resource by the end of 2020. The Waste Management Act in Bulgaria transposes its requirements, including the principles of the “polluter pays”, “extended producer responsibility” and the waste management hierarchy. Here we present a SWOT analysis aiming to identify the strengths and weaknesses of waste management practice in Bulgaria. This method is widely used as it allows to separate the object of analysis (waste management) from the external environment (the conditions in which it operates), followed by an analysis of the potential threats of various nature, as well as opportunities for its optimization. Input data sources included the annual reports and other available statistical information from National Statistics Institute, Ministry of Environment and Waters, and four Producer Responsibility Organizations (Bulecopack, Ecobulpack, Ecopack Bulgaria, Eco Partners Bulgaria) for the period 2020-2025. Some of the analytical criteria adopted were related to equipment and infrastructure, operational efficiency, policy and planning, public involvement and awareness. To make these criteria actionable, we used a multi-criteria decision-making approach and Analytic Hierarchy Process. Our results confirmed that despite the implementation of the quantitative goals of the WFD, Bulgaria still faces a number of challenges on the path to sustainable municipal waste management. The most pressing of these are: 1) low public participation in sorting waste, resulting in high percentage of recyclable waste from paper and cardboard, plastics, glass and metals in the mixed municipal waste; 2) operational inefficiencies like inadequate fleet size, poorly scheduled collection routes, or frequent equipment breakdowns. To address these issues, we recommend to raise the awareness of the population about separate collection and its benefits by Know-as-you-throw (KAYT) concept, combined with the introduction of the Pay-as-you-throw tariff schemes (PAYT).