Photo: “Za Istinata”
The estimates for waste management activities in Gabrovo and Sevlievo for 2026 reveal an interesting trend: costs are either decreasing or increasing moderately, but citizens will nevertheless pay significantly higher household waste fees.
According to the draft decisions published for public discussion by the two municipalities for the approval of expenses for services related to the collection and transportation of household waste to facilities and installations for its treatment, the treatment of waste itself, and the maintenance of cleanliness in parks, streets, and neighborhoods in 2026, a remarkably similar approach to increasing the rate for citizens and businesses is proposed, despite the remaining or even decreasing costs for waste.
In Gabrovo, costs are falling, but the fee is rising by nearly 18%
In Gabrovo, the total cost of waste management for 2026 is about 7% lower than in 2025. The largest decline is in waste collection and transport – over 21%, while treatment costs are also decreasing, albeit much more slowly.
The only noticeable growth is in the maintenance of public spaces – just over 22%. However, this does not compensate for the other reductions, and the total amount remains lower than that for 2025. According to the draft budget for 2026, expenses for waste and cleaning are estimated at just over BGN 8.5 million, while in 2025, nearly BGN 9.1 million is allocated for the same purpose. (The amounts are rounded, ed.). Against this backdrop, it is curious why the rate for residential properties in the city of Gabrovo is increasing from 4.40 to 5.18 – an increase of nearly 17.7%, which significantly exceeds the actual movement of expenses.
How will citizens pay more for lower expenses?
On November 18, “Za Istinata” sent questions to the Municipality of Gabrovo with a request to comment on the situation, but no response had been received by the time this text was published. Therefore, the analysis is entirely based on careful observations of Gabrovo’s waste collection budget estimates for the last two years.
The data shows that the increase in the “household waste” fee for 2026 is not due to higher costs, but to something else – a significant shift of the burden onto the fee itself, instead of financing from “other sources,” as was planned for 2025.
According to “Za Istinata,” this is the key point that explains why the rate is increasing, even though the total costs for cleanliness are decreasing, and it completely eliminates the logic for increasing the rate along the lines of “costs are rising.”
In figures, the situation looks like this: in 2025, approximately BGN 3.1 million will be needed for waste collection and transport, of which BGN 2.1 million will be covered by the household waste fee, with the rest coming from other public sources. In 2026, however, almost the entire cost of waste collection and transport will be covered by the fee paid by citizens and businesses. With BGN 2.4 million earmarked for this activity, BGN 2.3 million is estimated to come from the fee.
The same applies to the other two items used to calculate the household waste fee – for waste treatment in facilities and installations and for the maintenance of public spaces. For the latter, the money is almost the same this year and next, but while approximately BGN 1.8 million is estimated to come from the waste collection fee in 2025, the amount swells to BGN 2.2 million in 2026.
In Sevlievo, the fee is increasing due to street and park cleanliness
In Sevlievo, the total budget for 2026 increases by less than 7%. The main items show almost zero increase for waste collection and transport (0.07%) and even a 4.8% decrease for waste treatment and disposal.
Citizens will foot the bill
While Gabrovo is clearly betting on covering its cleaning costs mainly with taxpayers’ money, in Sevlievo the entire amount needed is covered by them, according to the budget plan published for public discussion. In other words, this means that citizens will pay the entire bill for waste collection, and the increase in the bill is not related to the rising cost of individual activities.
And there is another significant difference between the two cities – while Gabrovo actually invests in the maintenance of green spaces, in Sevlievo this activity is chronically underfunded. The flowered areas in the city can be counted on the fingers of one hand, which makes the 88% jump in the cost of maintaining public spaces even more difficult to explain.
