The Metropolitan Municipality announced an order for the burning of the RDF fuel produced by the Sofia garbage plant. The auction is for up to 195,000 tons of processed waste. For this purpose, Sofia plans to spend up to BGN 22.6 million in 12 months.
Currently, most of the fuel from garbage is not recovered, but is buried in the landfill near the plant. This led to a political skirmish between GERB and Mayor Vasil Terziev last week. The former rulers in Sofia accused the current municipal leadership of unnecessarily spending money on the production of RDF fuel, which they then throw away at the landfill. Vasil Terziev replied that the problem has been found and that it has been working on its solution for months. This went through improving the quality of the fuel so that cement plants, which actually burn RDF for a fee, would be interested in the order.
The goal of the Metropolitan Municipality is that by the end of the year, only 10% of the waste that reaches the garbage plant will go to a landfill, and the rest will be incinerated and recycled.
The public order for RDF recovery is divided into eight items with different maximum quantities and types of RDF waste. Documents for participation are submitted until May 16, and last week the municipality announced that there was preliminary interest from 7 companies.
Until now, there was almost no interest
The last order to burn RDF was announced last year by the administration of former mayor Yordanka Fandakova. However, it was for a much smaller amount of fuel – up to 98,000 tons per year. The estimated value for its utilization was nearly BGN 26.5 million, which the municipality had to pay to the companies that accepted the waste.
However, interest in the auction was meager. Only two companies appeared – “Holsim Bulgaria”, which has been burning fuel from Sofia’s waste for years, and the unknown “Industrial raw materials”. Contracts were concluded for the recovery of only 73,000 tons per year. According to public information in the public procurement register, the contracts were terminated in September last year on the grounds of “lack of funding”.
What happens to the trash
About 410,000 tons of garbage are sent from Sofia to the waste plant every year. Recyclable materials such as cardboard and metals must be separated from it before it is dried to RDF. The waste is then heat treated to reduce its moisture content and hence its volume.
Ideally, the RDF produced, which is projected to be around 180,000 tonnes, should be burned for energy production. This was supposed to be done in cogeneration at one of the plants of “Toplofikatsia Sofia”. The megaproject for the installation was supposed to be financed with European money, but it failed due to intractable delays.
Alternative options are now being worked on. According to unofficial information, the preferred among them is the construction of a plant for the production of synthetic gas by heating the fuel.
Until a permanent solution is found, Sofia will pay millions every year for the incineration of waste in the cement plants. Transport there is also at the expense of the municipal budget.
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