National Statistical Institute

"Environmental and Energy Statistics" Department

Hristina Mironova

Chief expert

2 Panayot Volov St., 1038 Sofia

[email protected]

+359 2 9857 536

Not available

The data for municipal waste include: quantities of generated municipal waste, delivered for landfilliling - direct disposal, delivered for preliminary treatment and delivered for recycling municipal waste, generated municipal waste per capita, share of population and number of settlements served by municipal waste collection system, the number, area and capacity of landfill sites and installation for treatment of municipal waste. The data is result of statistical survey “Municipal waste”, conducted by NSI, data from the demographic statistics for the annual number of the population and administrative date of Environmental Agency. The data from municipal waste is for the country and for the statistical region and districts

• List of wastes according Manual for the implementation of Regulation (EC) № 2150/2002 on waste statistics
• Ordinance No. 2 on the classification of waste, published in the Official Gazette, issue 66/08.08.2014
• Unified Classifier of Administrative-Territorial and Territorial Units (UCATTU)

The statistical survey covers the municipalities on the territory of Bulgaria (265 in total) responsible for the management and collection of municipal waste on their territory.

“Municipal waste” are:

a)       Mixed or separate collected municipal waste from household including paper and cardboard, glass, metals, plastics, bio-waste, wood, textiles, packaging, waste from electrical and electronic equipment, waste from batteries and accumulators, as well as bulky waste, including mattresses and furniture;

b)       mixed waste or separately collected waste from other sources, where such waste is similar in nature and composition to municipal waste

Municipal waste does not include waste from production, agriculture, forestry, fishing, septic tanks and sewage network and treatment, including sewage sludge, end-of-life motor vehicles or construction and demolition waste.

Generated municipal waste" is a summary indicator that characterizes the level of municipal waste. It is calculated as the sum of: (1) the quantities of municipal waste collected through organized waste collection systems, (2) the quantities of municipal waste collected through systems other than organized waste collection (primarily recyclable materials, such as metal, paper, plastic, and others, which are collected at specialized sites for the purpose and subsequently transferred directly for recycling), and (3) a statistical assessment of the waste generated by the population not covered by organized waste collection systems. The calculation approach is standard and applies to all districts in the country.

The municipal waste delivered for preliminary treatment, recycling and direct disposal are the waste at the entrance of the respective installation for treatment of municipal waste. To avoid re-counting the amount of waste - directly disposed municipal waste does not include waste submitted for disposal after pre-treatment. 

"Municipal waste generated per person (municipal waste accumulation rate)" is the amount of municipal waste generated at national level divided by the average annual population for the relevant year.

Definitions are used in accordance with the applicable legislation - Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC) and Directive (EU) 2018/851 amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste.

The statistical unit is municipality.

All municipalities in the country.

General for the country and by territorial levels - statistical districts and regions.

1999-2023

Not applicable.

• Generated municipal waste - thousand tons;
• Delivered for landfilliling municipal waste - thousand tons;
• Delivered for preliminary treatment - thousand tons;
• Delivered for recycling municipal waste - thousand tons;
• Generated municipal wastes per capita - kg/year/per capita;
• Landfill sites and installation for treatment of municipal waste – number;
• Area occupied by landfill sites and installation for treatment of municipal waste – decares;
• Served settlements – number;
• Share of population served by municipal waste collection systems - % ;
• Overcapacity of landfill sites and installation for treatment of municipal waste - thousand m3.

Calendar year

Legal Framework

• Statistics Act;
• Regulation (EC) No. 2150/2002 on waste statistics;
• Directive 2008/98/EC on waste and repealing certain Directives  ;
• Directive (EU) 2018/851 amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste
•  Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/1004 rules for the calculation, verification and reporting of data on waste  ;
• Commission Decision (EU) 2011/753/EU establishing rules and calculation methods for verifying compliance with the targets set in Article 11(2) of Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council  ;
• Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/1885 rules for the calculation, verification and reporting of data on landfill of municipal waste in accordance with Council Directive 1999/31/EC and repealing Commission Decision 2000/738/EC ;
• Waste Management Act  ;
• Ordinance on the order and manner of organizing national inventories of emissions of harmful substances and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere (Inventories Ordinance).

Agreements:

• -Agreements between the National Statistical Institute and the Ministry of Environment and Water for cooperation and exchange of information from 2003 and 2010

The data are provided annually to the Executive Environment Agency the for the preparation and reporting of the National Inventories of Emissions of Harmful Substances, under the Convention on long-range transboundary air pollution and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The data are used for reporting to Eurostat, under Regulation (EC) No 2150/2002 on waste statistics.

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics foresees the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and access to such confidential data, with due regard to technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

The Statistics Act (Art. 25, para. 1) stipulates that individual data received and collected in statistical surveys are statistical secret and may be used only for statistical purposes.

According to Art. 25 of the Statistics Act, individual data shall not be disclosed or provided. The provision of individual data is possible only according to Art. 26 of the Statistics Act.

The date for publication of the statistical information is indicated in the Release calendar of result of statistical surveys by NSI.

The calendar is available in website of NSI here.

The data on municipal waste are published on the NSI website in the "Statistical data - Environment" section in accordance with the Statistics Act and the European Statistical Code of Practice, respecting professional independence and aiming at objectivity and transparency, where all users are equal.

Annually

Regular press release on the NSI’s website.

• Statistical Yearbook
• Statistical Reference Book
• Electronic publication ‘Environment’
• Brochure ‘Bulgaria’

The data on municipal waste are available on the NSI’s website:

• Section “Environment”
• Information system INFOSTAT

Individual anonymized data may be provided for scientific and research purposes according the Rules for Provision of Anonymised Individual Data for Scientific and Research Purposes of the NSI.

Information services at the request of users according Rules for Dissemination of Statistical Products and Services of the NSI.

• Commission implementing decision (EU) 2019/1004 laying down rules for the calculation, verification and reporting of data on waste
• Commission Decision 2011/753/EU establishing rules and calculation methods for verifying compliance with the targets set in Article 11(2) of Directive 2008/98/EC
• Commission implementing decision (EU) 2019/1885 laying down rules for the calculation, verification and reporting of data on landfill of municipal waste in accordance with Council Directive 1999/31/EC and repealing Commission Decision 2000/738/EC
• Manual for theImplementationof Regulation (EC)No 2150/2002
• Guidance for data on municipal waste according Commission implementing decision (EU) 2019/1004 and 2019/1885/ЕU and the joint Eurostat-OECD questionnaire
• Internal methodology "Environmental Statistics and Accounts"

• European Statistics Code of Practice
• Integrated system management in NSI
• General model of statistical production process in nsi
• Guidelines for internal audits on the quality of statistical processes and products in nsi
• Internal methodology "Environmental Statistics and Accounts"
• Quality report, according to Regulation (EC) No. 2150/2002 on waste statistics.

The quality report is published annually with the publication of statistical data

Data quality is ensured by applying the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice and the National statistical system’s Common Framework for Quality Management, including with application of the internal methodology "Environmental Statistics and Accounts”, developed by the NSI.

The assessment of the statistical data quality is carried out in order to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Statistics Act in terms of quality criteria: adequacy, accuracy, timeliness, punctuality, accessibility and clarity, comparability and logical consistency. In this way, the application of the following principles of the European Statistics Code Practice is guaranteed: appropriate statistical procedures; non-excessive respondents’ burden; cost-effectiveness; relevance; accuracy; timeliness and punctuality; comparability and coherence; accessibility and clarity, etc.

The quality assessment is carried out for every stage of statistical production process in accordance with NSS Common Framework for Quality Management and the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice. It’s include statistical process and statistical information. For the quality assessment the requirements of the current methodological documents are applied, including the instructions in the internal methodology "Environmental Statistics and Accounts”, developed by the NSI.

To ensure high quality of the data, their consistency with administrative data of the Executive Environment Agency is checked.

In order to ensure data quality, work is also being done to continuously improve the online-based information system for the collecting of primary data, providing the possibility of arithmetic and logical control of input data and performing additional analyses and checks.

The main users of statistical information from the survey are state and municipal structures, scientific institutes, associations and citizens.

NSI conducts a regular statistical survey "User Satisfaction with the Statistical Information Products and Services Provided", which covers all statistical areas. It aims to assess user satisfaction with the statistical information provided by the NSI and to define recommendations for the future development of the statistical system in accordance with user needs.

The data meet the requirements of applicable legislation in terms of scope and monitored indicators.

Data accuracy, as one of the criteria for the quality of statistical information, according to the Statistics Act, is guaranteed through quality assurance activities within the statistical production process.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The data are published 14 months after the reporting year.

The data are published according to the deadlines in the Release calendar of result of statistical surveys by NSI.

The data are comparable at the district, regional, and zone levels. Given the application of common definitions and classifications, the data are comparable at the national level with other EU countries.

The data are comparable over time. Time series are available from 1999.

The data are coherence with data from Demographic Statistics for population by settlements

Classification is applied according to Classification of territorial units for statistics in Bulgaria (NUTS)

The data have a high degree of internal coherence. The quality assessment procedure checks the consistency of the primary and statistical data by waste code, the aggregated and detailed data.

The costs (budget) for statistical surveys are disclosed in the National Statistical Program, published on the NSI website.

Reducing the burden on respondents is a priority in conducting statistical surveys. In this regard, actions are being taken to alleviate the burden, for example: collecting and checking primary data through the online-based information system "Environmental Statistics", containing strict arithmetic and logical controls; improving the instructions for filling of the survey forms; providing methodological and technical assistance; continuously exploring the possibilities for using information from administrative and other sources; conducting annual training for respondents and NSI’s experts, etc.

The time needed to fill in the statistical forms is used as the main measure of the burden on respondents. For this purpose, a section is included in each form that respondents must fill in, regarding the time needed to fill in the form (including the time for data preparation). Based on this information and given the specifics of the study, the burden of the respondents can be determined as relatively high. The overall burden of the responsible experts is determined as high, especially in cases of revisions of data from previous reporting periods.

In accordance with the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice, Integrated system management in NSI and the requirements of the internal rules, data are regularly monitored and revised as necessary. Revisions are carried out according to standard, established and transparent procedures and are regularly analysed with the aim of improving data sources, statistical processes and products.

The data is revised upon change in regulatory requirements, the applied methodology, or when necessary.

• Statistical survey “Municipal waste”
• Administrative data (ExEA)

Annually

Data is collected from municipalities across the country on:

• The amount of generated and treated municipal waste by code and treatment operation (landfill, separation, biotreatment, incineration, others);
• Morphological composition of municipal waste,
• The number of settlements served by the waste collection system,
• Municipal waste treatment facilities (coordinates, occupied and project area, residual and project capacity in cubic meters, residual capacity in tons, amount of treated waste in the facility).

Data validation is part of the activities to ensure the quality of statistical information. Primary data are validated in terms of completeness, correct classification, units of measurement, comparability with previous years, comparability with data from other statistical areas and/or administrative sources, logical control, etc. Statistical data are validated in terms of their comparability, accuracy, reliability, etc., in accordance with the quality criteria according to the Statistics Act.

Data processing is carried out by strictly applying the methodology of the study and the data verification methods.

Data processing includes the actions by which, based on the primary data, brought into an appropriate form, statistical data are calculated, using specialized software products for this purpose.

Not applicable.