The report, “Parallel realities: Managing plastic packaging waste in Bulgaria beyond official statistics”, reveals significant discrepancies in waste data reporting across Bulgarian institutions.
Bulgaria’s official reports to Eurostat claim an above-average recycling rate for plastic packaging waste (50.6% in 2019), but local data tells a different story. Many municipalities fail to meet the EU’s 50% recycling target for municipal waste, with over half—132 municipalities—reporting recycling rates below 10% in 2019, and 43 recording practically zero.
The Bulgarian National Statistical Institute (NSI) and PROs report drastically different figures. In 2022, the NSI reported 148,367 tonnes of plastic packaging waste, while PROs reported 105,359 tonnes of plastic packaging released on the market by their members — a difference of 43,008 tonnes, or 30% less according to PROs. Similarly, in 2020, PROs underreported plastic packaging placed on the market by approximately 78%.
Larissa Copello, Packaging & Reuse Policy Officer at Zero Waste Europe, states: “This is a European problem. Last year, Zero Waste Europe brought attention to the problem in Spain, exposing how the packaging PRO was misreporting collection data. As a direct result, the Spanish Government announced the introduction of a nationwide deposit return system to meet its recycling targets. It is urgent that the EU creates the right tools and rules to guarantee proper oversight and reporting. A European organisation in charge of compliance monitoring is needed.”
Evgeniya Tasheva, Zero Waste Team at Za Zamiata, states: “This report raises serious concerns about underreporting or misreporting by PROs, but the real issue lies in the lack of adequate monitoring, controls, and sufficient legal requirements. Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging in Bulgaria fails to cover the true costs of managing packaging waste. As a result, these costs are unfairly shifted onto citizens. Bulgarians end up paying more than many other EU citizens for inferior service.”
These transparency issues with Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes will continue to happen unless the EU addresses these governance and power imbalances in EPR systems by creating an independent EU watchdog to monitor PROs performance, ensure accountability and transparency, and engage a broader range of stakeholders, like municipalities, in their governance.
Both Za Zamiata and the environmental network Zero Waste Europe are calling for a systemic overhaul of Bulgaria’s plastic packaging waste management system, and at the EU level a reform of EPR systems, with a focus on data transparency, stricter regulation, and a shift toward true circular economy practices in the scope of the upcoming European Commission’s proposal Circular Economy Act.
