Municipal Company “Sofekostroy” Assigned to Handle Rubbish Collection in Lyulin and Krasno Selo Districts

From 0 to 80% — that’s how the Deputy Mayor of Sofia, Nadezhda Bobcheva, described the progress made in the crisis plan for rubbish collection in the Lyulin and Krasno Selo districts. According to her, the municipality has gone through “a difficult path” over the past two weeks and has now restored most of the scheduled waste collection services.

“When all this started, we didn’t have a single truck or employee available to work. Now we are technically equipped and have staff operating the vehicles,” Bobcheva said at a press briefing at Sofia Municipality on October 20.

She expressed gratitude to everyone involved in overcoming the crisis, including volunteers.

“Two weeks ago, we announced an emergency organisation for waste collection in these two districts. In that time, we’ve made significant progress — from 0% to 80%. When I say ‘from 0%’, I mean that at the start, we literally had no trucks and no staff. Now we are properly equipped and have recruited a sufficient number of people to operate the machinery,” she explained.

The Deputy Mayor noted that technical failures and staff illnesses continue to pose challenges: “The vehicles break down, there are malfunctions, people get ill. At this point, we can say that we have restored 80% of the scheduled waste collection service in both districts.”

To further ease the system, Bobcheva announced that large containers will be placed at Zhitnitsa Street for bulky household waste such as furniture, as well as for construction debris. “We’ll monitor the process closely and won’t allow companies to dump waste at these sites — such violations have already been detected,” she added.

She urged citizens to separate their waste properly.

Bobcheva confirmed that Sofekostroy will continue handling waste collection in both districts, with no plans to contract a new company.

She reminded that the Sofia Municipal Council recently approved a loan of 9 million leva to purchase the necessary equipment and hire staff.

“There are still critical points in both Lyulin and Krasno Selo. No one said it would be easy,” she concluded.

Currently, the municipal enterprise has nine refuse trucks, four multi-lift vehicles, eleven small collection trucks, and one mixed-waste vehicle. Staffing shortages, however, remain a significant issue, municipal officials said.