An expert meeting was held at the Ministry of Education and Culture to get acquainted with the Romanian experience in the introduction of a deposit system

The working group for the introduction of a deposit system in Bulgaria held a meeting to get acquainted with the experience of Romanian experts who participated in the introduction of the deposit system in Romania. The meeting was held with the participation of the Deputy Minister of Environment and Water Nikolay Sidzhimov.

The participants in the working group - representatives of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, producers of soft drinks and brewers, recyclers, retail chains, organizations for the recovery of packaging waste, the Bulgarian Association for Consumer Protection, had the opportunity to receive practical advice on how to organize the deposit system in our country.

Places for collecting deposit packages must be convenient for people; the obligated industry covers the costs of the deposit system; the system operator is not entitled to distribute profit; that the collected deposit packages are the property of the operator - these are the most important principles derived from practical experience in Romania, which, according to the visiting experts, must be respected in order to avoid problems during the introduction of the system.

The Romanian experts presented the structure of the system operator of the deposit system, as well as the stages and the way to control its activity. They shared with their Bulgarian colleagues the understanding that the deposit system is the most efficient method of collecting clean and high-quality recyclable materials. Its operation must be parallel and in addition to the existing systems that implement the principle of extended producer responsibility.

The meeting was also attended by the contractors of the contract with the Ministry of Environment and Water under the public order "Introduction of a new model for the separate collection of packaging waste in Bulgaria", who are expected to propose a logistics organization for the implementation of the deposit system in Bulgaria, subject to compliance on the principles of system effectiveness and efficiency, user convenience and fair access, cost effectiveness and lowest environmental footprint when choosing between alternatives. The deadline for preparing the analysis is three months after the signing of the contract, starting from April 8, 2024, and its results will be subject to a broad public discussion with all interested parties.

Deputy Minister Sidzhimov informed that in a short period of time, the Ministry of Education and Culture is expected to submit opinions from the members of the working group on proposals for legislative amendments prepared by the Ministry, which would determine the structure of the deposit system in Bulgaria.