The first waste recycling factory in Bulgaria has been finished before 3 months and opens its doors this Thursday. It is near Shishmanci. The extracted compost will be used for reclamation and soil enrichment, which hasn`t been done for years in the country.

The Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov will have the pleasure to cut the ribbon, which will be followed by the mandatory 72 hours of technical checkups.

The contract for building and exploitation between the Plovdiv municipality and the consortium “Ecological factory” has been signed in 2003. Of course, it has been followed by many complications.

21 Million Euro have been invested in the factory. 2/3 has come from the government, the rest – from the local authority.

The factory is built on a technology from Spain, but some of the machines are French. The garbage will be taken to Shishmanci on trucks on the highway and maybe by rail. They will unload by 400 tons a day. The refuse will first enter a huge bunker. From it the waste will pass on assembly line through the primary sorting. There the larger pieces such as iron and plastic will be separated. Inert materials will directly go to a specific depot constructed over 200 ha. Organic waste will go to the separator. The entire process is automated.

Primary processed waste will enter the plant for fermentation. It consists of 16 cameras, where the garbage is being watered and maturates. It will stay there 15 days. The whole hall has a ventilation system. Thence along another assembly line the fermented garbage will pass for a last purification and refining. Finally, it must be filled in bags.

"Nothing will be stored in the factory. Compost will go to the market," said Andon Abromov, one of the directors. From the garbage of Plovdiv and the nearby communities will be produced about 60 000 tons of fertilizer annually. According Abromov, the company will be very profitable.

Plovdiv will take care for some of the capitals trash also, but of course - paid. If it uses doubled shifted regime it can double also the processed production. The processing fee per tonne of garbage will be around 14,5 euro.

Residents of the nearby village, however, are not that happy. "On 100 meters is the Trakia highway. Imagine how it will stink,” the former mayor Kera Hristeva explained. Local mostly afraid of Sofia bales. "If they are being brought here, for a month we will fill us and poison us," Stoyan Mihov protested. Still, some of the locals visited the spot and got the assurance that the technology is environmentally friendly.

Photos: 24 chasa