Multiple Modernities: Transitional Bulgaria and the Ecological Modernisation of Solid Waste Management

In 1996 Bulgarian municipalities were facing practical impacts of the transition from socialism affecting their solid waste systems. Existing waste infrastructure and practices had to accommodate both increased quantities and types of waste, and new EU performance norms. New demands, in combination with rising fuel prices, made ordinary operations unaffordable. Municipal managers searching for solutions joined with environmental nongovernmental organisations and consultants in exploring alternative modes of modernising their solid waste systems, using models that deviated as much from socialist-era traditions as from emerging EU waste management doctrine. We present and analyse a selection of seventeen small-scale, leading-edge solid waste modernisation projects, implemented between 1996 and 2008 in two regions in Bulgaria. Results and insights from these projects suggest that ecological modernisation in Bulgaria is a richer and more complex process than pure compliance with EU norms, having its own dynamics in relation to adaptation of EU blueprints.