Parliament has once again granted a new postponement and allowed municipalities to retain the old waste collection fee – based on tax assessment or book value – in 2026. This is in accordance with the transitional provisions of the law adopted on December 17, 2025. In Nedelino, however, on December 22, the Municipal Council will vote on a model that moves towards a “polluter pays” approach, but will measure the fee in two ways. For households, the fee will be based on the number of “users,” and for businesses, the size of the property will also be taken into account.
There are no scales, so “users” are counted
The draft amendment to the ordinance was published for public consultation on October 27, 2025, but no proposals were received from citizens within the deadline. With the current route-based waste collection and shared use of containers, “it is impossible to accurately measure the volume of waste generated by each household or individual,” writes Nedelino Mayor Boyan Kehayov in his explanatory memorandum to the amendments to the ordinance.
Thus, the fee for households will be for “collection and transportation,” and for businesses—for the cleanliness of public areas—the size of the property will also be included in the calculation.
“Users” will include not only owners, but also people with rights of use, tenants, persons with a current address, “occupants” under the Condominium Ownership Act, and anyone who actually resides in the property.
The municipality of Nedelino plans to count users in two ways. The first is official, through the registers of current addresses as of October 31 of the previous year. The second is through declarations, when the actual number of people in the dwelling is more or less than those registered at the address.
There is also an important detail that is not trivial. If there is no declaration, or if there is a discrepancy, the municipality can enter the number officially in the registers and carry out checks.
The squares are returned through “cleanliness”
The third service included in the waste collection fee is the maintenance of cleanliness in public areas. There, the hybrid form is clearly evident in Nedelino. For dwellings, it will again be the “user,” but for non-residential properties, the basis will be the total built-up and undeveloped area.
In practice, for street and square cleaning companies, the area of the site will also be measured. The data will be taken from declarations submitted under the Local Taxes and Fees Act and official information as of October 31, and in case of change or discrepancy, the owner must submit a new declaration.
In his explanatory statement, Mayor Kehayov also explains why the “clean” path of waste quantity is not being taken. Waste collection is carried out along routes that pass through different neighbourhoods, and the containers are used collectively by households, shops and offices. This means that the municipality cannot determine “how much waste each person produces”.
The state delays, Nedelino chooses a middle ground
The search for a fairer measure of waste collection fees in Bulgaria began with amendments to the Local Taxes and Fees Act, which ruled out the possibility of determining the fee based on tax assessment or book value and set January 1, 2026, as the date for the new regime. In order to have a common standard, in April 2024 the Council of Ministers adopted a regulation on the budget and how it is calculated.
The latest decision by parliament gave municipalities the right to apply the old rules in 2026 as well. But Nedelino chose not to wait another year and instead to try out a model that seems far more equitable and closer to the “polluter pays” principle.
