January 24 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria is planning to introduce tougher control on imports of scrap materials and waste products, the environment ministry said.
Potential measures include reduction in the number of border checkpoints through which such products can be imported, tracking the transportation route via GPS devices as well as video surveillance, the environment ministry said in a news release late on Thursday, after new environment minister Emil Dimitrov met with representatives of the local recycling industry.
"In this way we will receive feedback about what is happening. Several risk items will be put under special control, so that we do not hamper the operation of the whole sector," Dimitrov said.
The environment ministry also said that it will order local thermal power plant (TPP) Bobov Dol to stop the use of waste as fuel until it fully complies with its licence requirements. In the meantime, TPP Bobov Dol will be able to continue operation only using coal as fuel, Dimitrov said.
Earlier this week, main opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) filed a no-confidence motion against the governing coalition comprising the conservative GERB party and nationalist alliance United Patriots over its environmental policy. Bulgaria has become a landfill for waste imported not only from Europe but from Third World countries as well, BSP leader Korneliya Ninova said back then.
Earlier this month, Bulgaria's parliament appointed Dimitrov as minister of environment and water, replacing Neno Dimov who had resigned at the beginning of January after he was detained in police custody in relation to investigations into the reasons for a severe shortage of drinking water in the town of Pernik and suspected unlawful imports of waste into the country and its storage.