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Introduction

Waste Management of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is always a challenge for the local authorities. It is a composite problem with economical, environmental, social and political influences.

The legislative framework for solid waste management in Greece and Bulgaria is mainly based on the EU legislation. Both countries are binded to EU commitments to recycle packaging material and other products and to decrease biodegradable waste and other urban solid waste that are landfilled. The only way for the rational management of waste is the recycling, the minimization of waste production, the separate treatment of each “current” (so-called) of waste and the disposal of the residues in the landfills.
The Waste Management Authority of Eastern Macedonia – Thrace (EM-Th) is obliged to operate the Waste Management System serving 22 Municipalities (population ~610.000). Some years ago, over 300 dumps were open across Region of EM-Th. Today the majority of them are closed, but there are still some dumps open. With the completion of the infrastructures, the places for the final disposal of waste will be appropriate, according to the National and the European Law.

The Bulgarian Regional Association “For Cleaner Rhodopi” has 8 Municipalities – members (population 160.000) and is responsible for the protection of the environment from solid waste. Leader Municipality is the one of Kardzali. The construction of a Regional Centre for Waste Management for the 8 members will be completed by the end of 2013.
The challenge is to start-up the operation of the Greek system, in order to finally optimize the System operation and to transfer the experience to the Bulgarian side for setting it up as soon as possible.

For the treatment of Municipal Solid waste, a number of methods (such as composting, recycling etc) are being used prior to their final disposal in sanitary landfills. In the EU27, the participation rate of each treatment method in all countries is being presented in the following chart.