building waste management in bulgaria
TRANSCRIPT
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Building waste management in Bulgaria:challenges and opportunities
R. Hadjieva-Zaharievaa, E. Dimitrovab, Francois Buyle-Bodinc,*aBuilding Materials and Insulation Department, The University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy of Sofia,
Blvd Christo Smirnenski 1, 1046 Sofia, BulgariabUrban Planning Department, The University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy of Sofia,
Blvd Christo Smirnenski 1, 1046 Sofia, BulgariacLML, The University of Science and Technology of Lille, Department of Civil Engineering,
Cite Scientifique, 59655 Villeneuve d’Ascq Cedex, France
Accepted 25 February 2003
Abstract
Building waste recycling as aggregates is a modern approach for preventing environmental pollution through both reducing the
stocks of waste and decreasing the use of natural aggregates. The reuse of building waste is a relatively new issue for Bulgaria
despite the existing considerable quantity of building waste and the significant changes in the environmental rules applied. The
paper discusses generated and potential waste streams in Bulgaria in the context of the social and economic restructuring and recent
urban development undergone by the country. The main preliminary conditions for developing the recycling activity such as:
streams of building waste, experience in recycling, technical and environmental standardization, appropriate technologies, etc. are
examined. The authors analyze current practice and research activities with regard to the implementation of advanced EU building-
waste recycling methods. Conclusions are drawn about existing opportunities and the priorities of the needed building waste man-
agement strategy in the country.# 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Building industry unavoidably exerts pressure over
the natural environment as it consumes large quantities
of materials and produces an abundant waste stream by
both construction and demolition. The growing impor-
tance of the sustainability concept in an age that have
started with half the world population living in urban
areas has caused important changes in the attitude to
natural resource consumption in urban development.
Nowadays the ‘use-and-throw-away’ mentality of the
near past is steadily making place for a world-wide
‘recycling’ notion. Recycling, together with the intro-
duction and implementation of environment-friendly or
cleaner technologies, is increasingly pointed out among
the greatest technological challenges of our time (Laur-
itzen, 1993).
Two kinds of materials are to be distinguished within
the building waste (BW) stream—those for re-use and
others destined for abandonment. As the largest part of
BW is coming from concrete (i.e. being of inorganic and
non-toxic nature) it is reasonable to recycle and reuse it.
An inappropriate management of this waste flow would
result in loss of valuable prime materials (natural
resources) and in premature filling of the available
landfill volumes. In most EU countries a qualified re-
cycling process has been developed during the recent
decades which starts with planning a construction or
demolition project, and ends with quality control on re-
processed materials returned to the construction mate-
rial market. To recycle concrete waste as aggregates
(called Recycled Aggregates, RA) is nowadays con-
sidered a modern approach aimed at preventing the
environment from pollution through both reducing the
stocks of waste and decreasing the use of natural
aggregates. During the past 15 years BW recycling has
been intensively developing in a lot of West European
countries, USA and Japan as a profitable industrial
0956-053X/03/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0956-053X(03)00037-0
Waste Management 23 (2003) 749–761
www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +33-3-2043-4610; fax: +33-3-2876-
7331.
E-mailaddress: [email protected] (F. Buyle-Bodin).
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activity. There is a great number of BW recycling plants
reported in Europe at present—220 in Germany, 120 in
Great Britain, 80 in France, 70 in the Netherlands, 65 in
Belgium, 20 in Denmark, etc. (Hansen, 1992; Lauritzen,
1993; Kasai, 1994; De Pauw, 1994; Hendriks and Pie-
tersen, 2000). National and European regulations
strongly stimulate this activity. For example, accordingto French Law on Waste Elimination and Materials
Recovery (13 July 1992), depositing recyclable waste in
dump sites is forbidden since 2002 (Buyle-Bodin, 1993).
The situation in the countries of Central and Eastern
Europe is quite different. Due to on-going intensive
programs for modernization and reconstruction of
roads, bridges, municipal and industrial structures star-
ted in 1990s, a large amount of BW has been generated.
Yet, recycling activity is nowadays still at a starting
point (Dimitrova and Zaharieva, 2001). Economic con-
straints, lack of technical specification for recycled
materials and considerable conservatism within the
construction industry itself, constitute serious barriersto both recycling activity and RA application (Zahar-
ieva et al., 2000, Dimitrova and Zaharieva, 2001)
At the same time ‘newcomer’ countries in the field of
BW recycling, and Bulgaria as well, face many of the
difficulties of the ‘experienced’ ones (for example, insuf-
ficient information on waste generators, proofing of
data, co-ordination of different partners involved in the
waste management process, etc.) As construction and
demolition waste streams are generally difficult to
quantify, in all countries the total waste quantities
reported are usually a mixture of measured and esti-
mated data. The new laws implementation is particu-larly hampered by difficulties in communication with
local authorities, waste management companies and
policy-makers (Naidenov et al., 1999, Dimitrova and
Hadjieva-Zaharieva, 2002).
Discussing the issues of waste management in Bul-
garia is hereafter regarded as an opportunity to outline
the challenges and chances for applying advanced EU
principles and practice under the peculiar legislative,
social and economic conditions in the country. It could
also provide the basis for further development of useful
ideas on future international co-operation and know-
ledge transfer.
2. General national framework
2.1. Social, economic and spatial processes
The Republic of Bulgaria covers an area of about
111,000 km2 and is situated in the eastern part of the
Balkan Peninsula. It neighbors Romania to the north;
the Black Sea to the east; Turkey and Greece to the
south; Yugoslavia and the Former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia to the west (NSI, 2002d).
Bulgaria entered the period of its modern develop-
ment in 1878 after the liberation from the Ottoman
Empire. It faced World War II as a predominantly
agricultural country. In 1939 the rural population com-
prised about 80% of the total population and it was still
about 75% in 1946 (NSI, 2002a). The emphasis of eco-
nomic development put onto heavy industry under cen-trally planned socialism (1948–1989) resulted in the
rapid industrialization and considerable inner migration
flows towards large industrial centers. It also brought
about considerable changes in the life-style of several
generations, in the settlement network and in the settle-
ment structures themselves. The dynamics of the process
was greatest in the 1960s and 1970s when the number of
towns increased twice and the number of their inhabi-
tants—almost 3.5 times (NSI, 2002a). This resulted in
quick and extensive growth of the urban areas and in
the rapid construction of large housing estates of pre-
fabricated elements in the outskirts of cities and large
towns to shelter newcomers. According to official sta-tistics Bulgaria is one of the countries with the highest
dynamics of urbanization in Europe in the period 1950–
1990 (EEA, 1999).
The complex political, social and economic crisis
undergone by the country since 1989 and the new
opportunities for free travelling have caused an emigra-
tion flow of almost 1 million in westward direction. It
has resulted in a stable decrease of population in many
parts of the country but the process of urbanization is
still going on (Fig. 1).
According the latest census in March 2001 the popu-
lation of Bulgaria is reported to be almost 8 million,69% of them living in urban areas. Highly urbanized
territories comprise about 20% of the territory of the
country. There are nine towns with a population over
100,000 out of a total number of 240. The capital city of
Sofia with a population of 1,122,000 inhabitants is fol-
lowed by eight others: Plovdiv (345,000), Varna
(269,000), Bourgas (195,000), Rousse (166,000), Stara
Zagora (148,000), Pleven (121,000), Sliven (105,000) and
Fig. 1. Dynamics in the number of population and the share of urban
population in the period 1887–2001 (NSI, 2002a).
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Dobrich (100,000). The average population density in
the country is 74.2 inhabitants per km2 (NSI, 2002d).
The regions with highest degree of urbanization are
located around the cities of Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna.
Since 1999 the country is administratively divided into
28 regions and 262 municipalities (President’s Decree, 4
January) (Fig. 2). The general tendency towards decen-
tralization and democratization of public life in thepost-socialist period is the reason for shifting a lot of
new responsibilities from the national to the regional
and local levels. Thereafter the need for building ade-
quate potential at these levels is considered to be a most
pressing one.
2.2. The construction process
The transition period 1989–2002 caused series of
interrelated structural transformations in Bulgarian
society. The privatization of production funds, the res-
titution of land ownership and the restructuring of the
main branches of economy brought about deepeningsocial stratification, new public partnerships and pro-
found changes in both public and private urban space
(Dimitrova and Hadjieva-Zaharieva, 2002).
2.2.1. Existing stock and present state of residential,
industrial and public buildings
There are about 3.5 million dwellings registered in
Bulgaria, the prevailing share of which is erected in the
period 1946–1960 (27.2%), followed by the group of
those erected in the next two periods (18.8% in 1961–
1970, and 14.8% in 1971–1980). The percentage of new
dwellings built in the years after the political changes in
1989 is only 5.5% (Fig. 3) (NSI, 2002c,d).
The dwellings built up to 1960 were predominantly
monolithic low-rise ones (2–4 floors). High-rise build-
ings (6–7 floors) were rather an exception and were
located mainly in larger cities. Mass industrialization of
the residential sector started in 1965–1975 when pre-cast
panels became a priority of housing policy (Fig. 4).Thirty large plants for the production of pre-fabricated
panels were built in the large regional centers of the
country (three of them in Sofia). As a result of this up to
1997 about 120 housing estates of prefabricated panels
were erected, with a total number of 11,000 blocks of
flats and about 740,000 apartments. Most of these
buildings and their installations are estimated to be
considerably worn out and outdated with respect to
present living standard requirements. Experts consider
the need for sanation quite urgent (Romanov, 2002).
Fig. 2. Administrative division of Bulgaria since 1999 (NSI, 2002d).
Fig. 3. Existing dwellings in Bulgaria by year of construction.
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In the longer term their demolition and gradualreplacement by brand new ones will be one of the
greatest challenges to local and national authorities
(Dimitrova and Hadjieva-Zaharieva, 2002). The same
process could be expected concerning a number of out-
dated, unfinished or abandoned public and industrial
structures (Fig. 5a). A large number of prefabricated
reinforced concrete units have stayed unfinished and
simply abandoned for more than 10 years now (Fig. 5b).
A tendency to decrease the output volume of con-
struction is observed in the period 1995–2001. The
decrease is even greater in 1997 and 1998—about 18%
with reference to 1995. According to preliminary data in2001 the decrease of construction, mounting and rea-
lized building services is 6.5%, compared with 2000, and
10.0%, regarding 1995. During the same period the
relative share of the construction activity of the private
sector is higher than that of the public one. In the first 3
years it has reached 56–57% of the total amount of
realized receipts in construction. In 2001, the private
construction companies realized receipts by 2.1% less
than the previous year. Nevertheless the relative share
of accomplished construction and mounting activities in
the private sector reaches 88.4% and it increases by 3.6
points in comparison with 2000. The growing role of the
private sector could be expected to influence the means
for efficient quality control on construction as well as
the way of formulating the national, regional and localstrategies for building waste recycling (NSI, 2002c).
2.3. Transport infrastructure construction
The total length of the national road network in 2002
is 37,288 km and the average density is 0.33 km2.
Approximately 90% of the roads are with asphalt.
There are 324 km motorways, 3000 km first-grade
roads, 3800 km second-grade roads, 29,900 km third-
and fourth-grade roads. Two-lane roads with overall
width between 6.00 and 7.50 m are most common.
Approximately 2500 km of the first grade roads are part
of the European road network. The following interna-tional roads cross the territory of the country: E80, E79,
E83, E871, E772, E70, E85, E87, E773. A considerable
part of the existing road network badly needs rehabili-
tation, modernization and new development.
The construction of new and the reconstruction of
existing transport facilities is among the most dynami-
cally developing sectors in Bulgaria. The national policy
aimed at joining European and Euro-Atlantic political
structures would require the development of a modern
national transport system adequate to the European
one. Moreover, the strategic location of the country in
the Balkans presupposes that five trans-Europeantransport corridors (No. IV, VII, VIII, IX and X—
Branch C), pass the country.
The National Programme of Transport Sector Devel-
opment also includes the construction and development
of Sofia National Airport and the restructuring, rehabi-
litation and modernization of the rail transport network.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications has
elaborated an Investment Programme for Development
Fig. 5. Unfinished and abandoned buildings: (a) industrial building near Sofia; (b) public building near the town of Vidin.
Fig. 4. Panel assembled building.
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of the Transport Infrastructure of the country. It com-
prises 36 national investment transport projects, 25 of
which are included in the Middle-term National Invest-
ment Programme of the Government. The investments,
necessary till 2015 are of a total amount of US$
4,890,85 million. The projects are in the field of railway,
combined, road, maritime (sea and inland waterways)and air transport and are situated along the five Pan-
European Transport Corridors, which pass through the
territory of Bulgaria. The funding for these will include
investments by the state budget and other financial
sources such as: taxes on liquid fuels, credits by the
international financial institutions, public–private and
private concessions, etc. (Bulgaria-Country Profile,
2001).
Envisaged new construction activities would require
huge amounts of building materials and aggregates
(crushed stone, gravel stone and sand) in particular. The
experience of developed countries proves that natural
aggregates could be partially substituted in this field byrecycled ones (Hansen, 1992; Kasai, 1994; De Pauw,
1994; Hendriks and Pietersen, 2000). Large quantities of
BW are expected as a result of railway and road net-
work reconstruction. Transportation and landfilling of
that waste could have a serious negative effect on the
environment. BW recycling would be an opportunity to
effectively solve these problems.
3. BW management in the country—current state
3.1. Environmental policy and legislation
The frame for the modern environmental legislation
in Bulgaria has been set with the adoption of the
Environmental Protection Act in 1991. The act revised
the system of environmental standards and introduced
the ‘polluter pays’ principle, the right of the public to be
informed and the prevention principle. In recent years a
large number of legal documents were adopted to reg-
ulate the relations between different sectors dealing with
the environment. The changes in legislation were aimed
at both reflecting the new socio-economic conditions in
the country and transposing EU environmental laws in
Bulgarian legislation in the EU accession process.The administrative levels responsible for the imple-
mentation of environmental policy comprise the Minis-
try of Environment and Water (MOEW), its regional
bodies (15 Regional inspectorates, four basin Divisions,
Directorates of National Parks) and 262 municipalities.
The national legislative basis for waste management in
force comprises the Act on Limitation of the Harmful
Impact of Waste on the Environment, passed in 1997
with the respective regulations. There are eight regula-
tions in force, in compliance with the EU directives, i.e.
75/442/EEC on waste and Decision 94/3/EC; Proposal
for a directive on Landfill of waste (COM/97/105), etc.
(MOEW, 2001).
Until 1999 a number of consecutive cabinets in Bul-
garia with different political orientation, have tried to
find ways of sustaining development (MOEW, 1999a).
A new National Strategy for the Environment (NSE)
and Action Plan for the period 2000–2006 have beenelaborated. The outlined main objectives related to
waste management are:
prevention and reduction of waste generation;
environmentally sound waste disposal; and
re-use and recycling of waste materials (increased
amount of recycled waste by 20% in 2005 and by
30% in 2010; increased number of waste types
collected for recycling and re-use, construction of
new facilities for waste recycling (MOEW,
1999b).
However they are generally slowly and often ineffec-tively put into practice despite the stable growth of
reported expenditures on acquisition of assets designed
for the environment and those on maintenance and
exploitation grow considerably in recent years (Fig. 6).
The expenditures on waste management in 2000 were
22% of the total expenditures on environmental pro-
tection and rehabilitation. A more detailed review of
statistical data reveals that only 0.5% have been spent
on building waste (Fig. 7) (NSI, 2002b). Being non-toxic
and relatively harmless from environmental point of
view. BW materials are considered less problematic than
other waste and the issue of their treatment is oftenunderestimated. In all the reports and regulations
reviewed BW is mentioned jointly with municipal waste
and the majority of measures envisaged are aimed at the
improvement of municipal waste management. The
existing financial conditions in for waste management in
the country could be hardly estimated as efficient in
order to stimulate the development of building waste
Fig. 6. Expenditures on environmental protection and rehabilitation.
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recycling activities. It still remains economically more
efficient to produce natural aggregates and to deposit or
abandon building waste than to invest in building-waste
recycling. The charges for natural aggregates produc-
tion, for building waste landfilling and for improperwaste storage although increased recently, are not to be
considered an effective instrument to stimulate recycling
yet (Naidenov et al., 1999, Dimitrova and Zaharieva,
2001).
The MOEW budget for 2003 is 173.7 million BGL
(about E82 million). It has been increased 93.2% com-
pared with the current year. There are two priorities
stated in the field of environmental protection—water
and waste management (MOEW, 2002).
3.2. BW streams and quantities
The data on BW quantities generated in recent years
on the national level (Table 1) are provided by two
sources:
1. The Environment 2000 Bulletin and the Statistical
Yearbook of the Republic of Bulgaria, editions
67, 68 and 69 of the National Statistical Institute
(NSI, 2002b,d).
2. Annual Bulletin 1999 and 2000 of the Executive
Environment Agency (EEA), EEA is the Bul-
garian specialized agency performing monitoring,
analytical and laboratory activities for the
Ministry of Environment and Waters and dis-
seminating environmental information. It is a
structure carrying out management of the
National Automatic System for Environmental
Monitoring and a National Reference Center
for the European Environment Agency
(EIONET-EEA-Bulgaria, 2002a,b).
The comparison between the two sets of data is quite
disturbing as they differ significantly.
According to NSI building waste comprises waste
obtained on building sites or as result of demolition or
reconstruction of buildings and facilities, including road
construction (NSI, 2002a). BW is however incorrectly
regarded there as a part of industrial waste as in the Act
on Limitation of the Harmful Impact of Waste on the
Environment is separately classified under No. 17.00.00
(MOEW, 2001). Data are gathered by municipal
administrations being in charge for their management
and concern municipal landfills and specialized BWlandfills. The accuracy problem emerges from the fact
that the exact weighing of landfilled waste quantities is
only possible in certain landfills. That is why the general
practice is to estimate BW quantities on the basis of
transportation reports. In some of the landfills quan-
tities are defined by the degree of filling up the available
volume. For example, in NSI Bulletin on the Environ-
ment in 2000, 329,070 m3 of BW are reported in specia-
lized BW landfills (NSI, 2002c).
The data of EEA probably reflect real BW quantities
more precisely. In 1997, a nation-wide database (DB) of
municipal solid and construction waste was created inEEA. In the same year, a software product was elabo-
rated and introduced for information processing. Since
1995, in some Regional Inspectorates of Environment
and Waters (RIEW) local DBs have been functioning
with software products to operate the DB on a regional
level. The monitoring of municipal solid waste and BW
waste within MOEW system covers the residential
areas where the main part of the population is con-
centrated. According to MOEW experts, an improve-
ment is observed in the quality of the reported
information on municipal solid waste and construction
waste for the period 1997–1999, due to the following
reasons:
the application software for information proces-
sing requires correct data;
the municipal administrations consider more
seriously their responsibilities for the preparation
of reports and information documents on waste
management activities; and
RIEW apply more stringent control, in accor-
dance with waste standards and regulations
applicable in the country (EIONET-EEA-Bul-
garia, 2002a).
Fig. 7. Share of expenditures on detoxification and utilization of
waste resulted from different economic activities.
Table 1
Reported quantities of building waste in Bulgaria
Year Building waste, kt
Data source NSI Data source EEA
1995 546 No data
1996 485 No data
1997 370 1140
1998 410 1043
1999 No data 1343
2000 484 746
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Statistical data of EEA shows that in 1997–2000 the
average annual amount of generated BW waste per
capita was 100–170 kg. Compared to the data for the
EU countries (200–450 kg/per year/per capita of build-
ing waste (EEA, 1999), the problem of BW management
in Bulgaria could be underestimated. The expert assess-
ment of the total building waste amount for 2000 issignificantly higher.
It is not possible to outline a clearly expressed ten-
dency of BW decrease or increase based on statistical
data. Although the information collected after 1998 is of
higher quality, compared to previous years, a great part
of BW is not taken into consideration. For example, the
reported quantities of construction waste in 2000 are
44% less than those for 1999 (EIONET-EEA-Bulgaria,
2002b). The possible reasons for that considerable dif-
ference may on the one hand be due to information
gaps—less municipalities have submitted data of con-
struction waste during the period under review, and on
the other hand—omissions related to landfill exploita-tion—in many cases the municipal administrations
report jointly construction waste, earth masses and inert
waste, and no quantitative evaluation is possible for the
collected construction waste. In addition, the lack of
effective application of the environmental laws causes
an increase of fly-tipping (Fig. 8). As a final result the
exact quantity of building waste cannot be defined.
Effective BW management should also take into con-
sideration territorial non-uniformity of the processes.
Average national data usually provide only general
information as in highly industrialized regions a lot of
buildings are demolished or reconstructed, thus the BW
quantities produced are considerably above the average
ones for the country. In reality 83% of the constructionwaste in the country is generated in the cities with
population over 30,000 (EIONET-EEA-Bulgaria,
2002b). A typical example is provided by the data
reported by RIEW in the region of Pazardjik where in
1999 the quantity of BW is 2968 kg per capita as a result
of the demolition of the large copper-processing
Assarel–Medet Complex. The average quantity in the
country for the same period is 170 kg per capita. At the
same time the quantities reported by RIEW in the
region of Montana (in the northwestern part of the
country) are only 14 kg per capita.
The so-called ‘hidden’ waste, consisitng mainly of
produced but rejected and not used prefabricated con-crete units (panels), remains unreported as well. An
enormous quantity of such materials is stored in the
warehouses throughout the country (Fig. 9). For exam-
ple, the municipal company ‘‘Domostroene’’ (‘‘Home-
building’’), in Sofia which is a successor of six former
building companies, owns more than 150,000 tons of
rejected panels (Naidenov et al., 1999). Finding a solution
Fig. 8. Fly-tipping BW in the vicinities of Sofia.
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to the problem of abandoned unused pre-cast building
panels should be considered one of the greatest oppor-
tunities of the nearest future. On one hand, being
homogeneous, with almost no impurities and made of high-quality concrete, they are BW of an exceptionally
high recycling potential and the RA produced would
have a wide field of application. On the other hand, up
to 1989 each of the 30 regional centers in the country
has had a panel production plant. At present neither of
them is working as such. They have been privatized and
transformed into construction companies. The new
owners would gladly discharge their warehouses from
the panels stored and they also need aggregates for new
construction activity.
Hidden BW also comprise those obtained by rejection
of low-quality production in plants producing small-sizebuilding elements (ceramic bricks, blocks and tiles,
concrete masonry units and pavement elements, etc.).
Due to the outdated technologies applied, the share of
rejected elements is too high. The view of enormous
waste heaps of such elements around the plants is quite
a usual view (Fig. 10).
As mentioned in Section 2.2. the exploitation period
of prefabricated housing estates from 1960s and 1970s is
coming to an end and the need for their gradual sub-
stitution with modern ones would suppose the appear-
ance of enormous BW quantities in future decades due
to the considerable construction volume of that kind inBulgaria.
Abandoned and unfinished industrial and public
buildings in the countryside, up in the mountains or in
the cities and towns, which have been submitted to
destruction for the recent decade and could be no more
reinforced and restored should be considered another
potential source of BW. The favorable aspect of these
waste sources is related to the fact that the demolition
methods applied could be simplified and the RA
obtained would be of relatively good quality as usually
the reinforced-concrete skeleton alone has left out of the
buildings.
3.3. The practice of land filling
Up to the present moment the only way of BW treat-
ment in Bulgaria, as in most of the ‘transition’ coun-
tries, is landfilling. In DB, data on waste landfill
locations, their areas, quantities of collected waste, set-
tlement serviced and their population, etc. are stored.
Fig. 9. Unused pre-cast panels stored in the warehouse near the town of Smolian.
Fig. 10. Heaps of rejected ceramic bricks by the plant in Dragovishtitsa.
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The National Environment Monitoring System main-
tains a Register of Landfills and Old Polluted Sites
(RLOPS). In the RLOPS, all municipal solid wastelandfills are entered, each with its unique number, for all
towns, some villages—municipal centers, village land-
fills servicing several settlements and the known devoted
construction waste landfills. In 2000, 284 landfills and
old polluted sites are reported. They occupy a total area
of 832.8 ha of which old polluted sites occupy an area of
167.9 ha. In most cases landfills for BW and earth mas-
ses are abandoned quarries, bogged areas, eroded
embankment and other negative landscape forms, and
occupy a total area of 113 ha (Fig. 11) (EIONET-EEA-
Bulgaria, 2002b).
In recent years it has become more difficult to open
new landfills as tighter environmental controls have
been introduced. With the purpose of land reclamation,
apart of construction waste, also earth masses from
earth excavation works and inert industrial waste are
disposed on BW landfills. For example, on the BW
landfill of Padina, Avren municipality, constructionwastes from the enterprises of Devnia industrial com-
plex (near Varna) are deposited—70.161 tons. The rest
of the construction waste—292.223 tons—are disposed
on municipal solid-waste landfills (EIONET-EEA-Bul-
garia, 2002a).
The set of BW landfills is not well developed. That is
why, in 1999, only 78% of reported quantity of BW is
deposited in 36 specialized landfills for construction
waste and earth masses, the rest quantities are landfilled
together with municipal waste. (Fig. 12) (EIONET*-
EEA-Bulgaria, 2002b). This should be estimated as
inefficient for two reasons. Firstly, municipal landfills
require higher investments than BW ones because of thehigher environmental risks. Secondly, usually landfilled
without preliminary crushing, BW need comparatively
large space. The situation is particularly problematic
around some of the largest cities of the country (Sofia,
Russe, Pleven) as they generate huge BW quantities but
there are no specialized landfills. Even in the new
Development Plan of Sofia where the Environmental
Impact Assessment is strongly focused upon, building
waste issues are not considered explicitly.
The control over landfilling is not sufficient either:
according to the data submitted by the Regional
Fig. 11. Shares of the landfills areas and old polluted sites (by area).
Fig. 12. Percentage of building waste deposited in specialized BW landfills and in municipal waste landfills in 1999.
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Environment and Water Centers, 95% of the BW
landfills are practically not controlled, so there is no
reliable data concerning the stream composition
(EIONET-EEA-Bulgaria, 2002a).
There are some cases, although quite rare, of building
waste applied in operating municipal waste landfills.
Some types of BW, e.g. those of the construction mate-rial production, are used in road construction and in
soil re-cultivation (EIONET-EEA-Bulgaria, 2002a).
In NSE recycling waste plants have been suggested as
an alternative to landfills (MOEW, 1999b), but they are
still expensive to construct and costly to run. Particu-
larly in cases of BW already mixed with other kinds of
waste, recycling is either very costly activity or impos-
sible. That is why current research on BW recycling
should focus on future BW streams rather than on
already landfilled BW.
4. Recycling as an alternative approach
4.1. Technical, technological and economic aspects
Recycled building materials are generally directed to
two areas of use: secondary construction materials with
the same demands on quality as required for primary
building materials (i.e. base courses in road construc-
tion, concrete aggregates), and recycling groups with
lower requirements (i.e. structure back-filling, parking
spaces, etc.).
The use of coarse RA as partial or total substitution
for natural coarse aggregates is becoming usual forordinary concrete (Hansen, 1992; De Pauw, 1994; Hen-
driks and Pietersen, 2000). It is also usual to apply
industrially recycled aggregates for manufacturing con-
crete products (Zaharieva et al., 2000; Sagoe-Crentsil et
al., 2001; Olorunsogo and Padaychee, 2002). Recently,
the need to demolish structures with high performance
concrete, (for example, building frames or bridge
beams, provided the source of a new generation RA and
stimulated the manufacturing of structural recycled high
performance concrete (Limbachiya et al., 2000, Ajdu-
kiewicz and Liszczewicz, 2002).
The legal rules for definition and utilization of RA
differ from country to country. The implementation of RA in road construction is ruled either by specifications
(in Netherlands and Denmark), or by recommendations
(in USA, Germany, Japan and the former USSR)
(Hansen, 1992; Kazai, 1994; Hendriks and Pietersen,
2000, Eikelboom et al., 2001) The new EN standard for
concrete aggregates (prEN 12620: Aggregates for con-
crete, July 2000) considers RA as conventional aggre-
gates and defines their use in accordance with their
characteristics.
Bulgarian legislation regarding the definition and use
of concrete aggregates addresses predominantly natural
aggregates. Artificial concrete aggregates (RA should be
classified in this group) are just mentioned; light-weight
aggregates and those for special use (i.e. for heavy con-
crete, etc.) are particularly a subject of explicit legal
regulation. Yet, the lack of legal regulation on artificial
aggregates should not be considered a serious obstacle
to the initiation of RA production. Actually at presentall the standardization in the building activity field is in
the process of change, the general trend of the reform
being to come closer to European norms (EN). For
instance the main part of EN standards are simply
translated into Bulgarian and indicated as BSS EN
(Bulgarian State Standard). The use of materials for
which no corresponding BSS exists could be permitted
in accordance with an existing European Standard for
such cases.
Approaches to recycling technologies differ with
regard to BW origin and constitution and concern
mainly the methods for removal of impurities—pre-
liminary grading, magnetic pulling off of metallic waste,and separation of light materials such as wood, paper,
plastics, etc. by hand, by flotation or by air cyclone. The
technologies applied are classified in three groups:
Selective recycling is applied for previously
selected homogeneous waste (bricks, concrete). It
is suitable for the recycling of large elements of
building structures, masonry solids, etc.
Recycling in situ is an approach applied to
minimize the cost of transportation, for instance
in the road construction. Mobile installations are
convenient but they have a limited capacity forremoving harmful impurities.
Industrial recycling is performed in specialized
recycling plants; the RA produced are of superior
quality, due to the application of multiple
methods for the removal of impurities; plants are
however comparatively expensive and could be
efficient in cases of large and stable BW flows.
Besides its environmental positive effect, building
waste recycling has proved to be also economically rea-
sonable, particularly when the recycling facilities are
located nearby large urban areas with intense construc-
tion activities and a relative shortage of natural aggre-gates, when great quantities of building waste are
produced and the evacuation of the waste materials is
difficult. Mobile plants are almost fourth times cheaper
than industrial plants. (Hansen, 1992). It has been esti-
mated that in order to be competitive at the market, RA
should be cheaper than the natural ones. Hence, the
competitiveness of RA depends on the level of price of
natural aggregates as well as on the level of fees paid for
depositing the building wastes. The price of natural
aggregates in Bulgaria is contiguously increasing as the
number of the carriers for their production is decreasing
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due to various considerations: economic (equipment
amortization); administrative (problems with land
property) and environmental (increasing taxes on pro-
duction in order to reduce pressure on the environ-
ment). Although Bulgaria has considerable resources of
natural aggregates, there are several regions, especially
in the northeastern part of the country and around thelarge cities, which face a shortage of concrete aggre-
gates. The aggregates supply in those regions leads to
increase in the price of the concrete due to transporta-
tion expenditures. Because of the high fuel price and
relatively old trucks used in the construction sector,
transportation costs can be up to two times higher than
the production costs of NA. For example, in the region
of Sofia the production cost of NA (crushed stone) is
5.22 BGL (about E2.6)/m3, while the transportation
costs from Balsha Quarry to Sofia (about 36 km) are
6.21 BGL (about E3.1)/m3 (Naidenov et al., 1999).
During the process of preparation of a financial pro-
ject within the ‘‘Science for Peace’’ Programme (1997– 1998 À.), the expenditures for a mobile installation and
the equipment of a test laboratory on the territory of a
house-building plant in Sofia (plot, buildings, trucks,
hydraulic cutters, etc.) are estimated to be about
E200,000. A total sum of about E430,000 was envisaged
for the integral project aimed at the creation af the basis
for such an activity in Bulgaria, including the produc-
tion of a certain RA amount, its characterization and
initial experimental application in the process of con-
struction (Naidenov et al., 1999).
Deposition taxes in Bulgaria are still comparatively
low [about 5.00 BGL(E
2.5)/m3
] but due to the increas-ing concern for the environmental protection a tendency
of increasing it is expected. Danish experience could be
applied about the levy of a landfill tax on BW. Partly
due to the tax and partly due to the use of other instru-
ments, the rate of recycling of BW increased from less
than 20% in 1990 to about 90% in 1999 (Hendriks and
Pietersen, 2000).
4.2. Practical experience
Notwithstanding that nowadays Bulgaria is just
facing the problem of BW reuse, some initial activities
in the country are worth mentioning. In 1995, IngstroyLtd—a construction company in Sofia, has acquired
some experience in crushing, sieving and reusing con-
crete BW (produced from precast concrete products.
More than 200 t of concrete panels were recycled by
using a standard crusher in Balsha quarry. The aggre-
gates were reused in low-strength concrete mixes with-
out any special investigation. REC, a Bulgarian—
Moravian company has built an installation for railway
crushed stone recycling, the products obtained were
applied in railway construction again. The installation
is assembled in the plot of an abandoned industrial
complex about 60 km from Sofia. The company has
declared an ambition for further development by con-
crete waste recycling but up to the present day only a
limited set of activities in this direction have been
undertaken (Naidenov et al., 1999).
4.3. Research activities
The scientific problems related to the reuse of concrete
BW have been discussed in different periods by different
research institutions—Bulgarian Academy of Sciences,
Scientific-Research Institute of Construction, etc.
In 1996, a research collaboration has been initiated
between the Central Laboratory of Physico-Chemical
Mechanics (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) and the
‘‘Materials and Structures’’ Group (North of France)
lead by Professor Buyle-Bodin. The joint research
activity is focused on investigating the properties of
industrially produced recycled aggregates and the specific
features of recycled aggregate concrete. The methodo-logical and technical results could be particularly useful
for further research in Bulgaria (Naidenov et al., 1999,
Zaharieva et al., 2000, Buyle-Bodin and Hadjieva-
Zaharieva, 2002).
A pilot project, called ‘‘Recycled Concrete Aggregates’’,
on producing of RA from rejected panels in Bulgaria, has
been prepared for participation in NATO programme
‘‘Science for Peace’’ (1997–1998). The key Bulgarian par-
ticipants were the municipal Domostroene Company in
Sofia and Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, with the com-
mitment of Ministry of Environment and Water Resour-
ces and the Municipality of Sofia. The French partnerswere Universities in northern France, Krupp Hazemag
Group and RMN recycling company. The project could
not win financing because of its relatively high value, which
exceeded the limits of the NATO program. However, it
was highly appreciated by the target groups including leg-
islative institutions, local authorities, developers, con-
struction companies, etc. (Naidenov et al., 1999).
A current research project titled ‘‘Appropriate Appli-
cation Fields of Recycled BW’’ is partially supported by
the Research and Design Center at the University of
Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Sofia
(Contract No. BN 4/2001). It is aimed at defining the
field of rational RA application with respect to theprinciples of sustainable urban development. Taking
into consideration the technical feasibility and the nor-
mative framework of the process, BW recycling is situ-
ated within the wider context of environmental,
economic and social regards. The interdisciplinary team
consists of urban planners, economists, architects and
civil engineers. The research results will be addressed to
a broad set of final users involved in planning and
management at the local, regional and national level
and also in all the stages of the construction process
(Dimitrova and Hadjieva-Zaharieva, 2002)
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5. Conclusions
Sustainable urban development needs the considera-
tion of two interconnected objectives—the possibility to
improve the quality of urban life and to decrease the
pressure on the environment through rational resource
management. Addressing both, building-waste manage-ment can be regarded as an effective way towards a
more sustainable path of development.
The importance of the building waste recycling issue
in the countries ‘in transition’ is defined by the existence
of considerable quantities of accumulated waste materi-
als not properly treated and the expected tendencies of
increasing the building waste amount.
The raising of ecological awareness with the on-going
changes in legislation in the pre-accession period aimed
at harmonization with EU environmental protection
and waste management policy have already created the
favorable framework of the process in Bulgaria.
Several prospects for the development of an effectivebuilding-waste recycling management in Bulgaria can be
outlined.
In the short-term a favorable opportunity for the
beginning of a recycling process is provided by the
existence of unused reinforced concrete panels closed to
old pre-cast installations and housing scheme because of
several advantages:
Simple recycling technology—there is only need
of panel crushing and aggregate grading, there-
fore selective recycling and recycling in situ by a
mobile plant can be applied. High performance of RA: waste is homogenous,
primary concrete has satisfactory mechanical
characteristics and there are no significant
impurities, so RA can be used for different pur-
poses, including concrete manufacturing.
No transport costs: waste disposal, recycling and
reuse are executed at the same place. It can be
supposed that the price of these RA will be
considerably lower than the price of crushed
natural stone. In addition, when certain stock of
panels is recycled, the mobile plant can be moved
to another region.
It is a good starting point for a recycling process
based on mobile plants, which are up to four times
cheaper than the stationary ones and thus an efficient
option for SME development. The valorisation of pro-
duced RA could start by use in road-construction or in
construction of small pre-cast elements. One of the main
obstacles to the development the building-waste re-
cycling industry—the lack of capital—could be over-
come by attracting foreign investment.
A trans-disciplinary research approach in the field of
BW management could effectively contribute for the
elaboration of long-term regional and municipal devel-
opment recycling strategies and programs. The pro-
cesses of demolition and new construction should be
interrelated within integral urban policies.
An international co-operation in the field of building
waste management could support both processes: the
import of European know-how and equipment in thefield of recycling to CEE and the export of expertise on
the specific situation in the Balkans region that would
facilitate the practical implementation of advanced
methods and approaches in waste management.
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