In a neighborhood in downtown Sofia, theatergoers are looking for entertainment among the city’s rubbish — quite literally.
As night falls, spectators are led from one garbage can to another, listening to the untold stories of the Bulgarian capital’s army of unofficial refuse collectors.
“You can tell a home by its rubbish. Show me people’s rubbish and I can tell you who they are,” says one actor dragging a cart, while another describes a collector’s daily routine while sitting on top of a full garbage container.
Photo: AFP
The unusual joint performance by environmental pressure group Za Zemiata and the Vox Populi documentary theater group presents verbatim accounts of some of about 5,000 people who eke out a living in Sofia’s ever-growing rag-and-bone trade.
Za Zemiata, in addition to combating the stigma that brands them “vagrants,” also wants to highlight the crucial role that such unofficial collectors play in helping Sofia meet an EU target of recycling 50 percent of its rubbish by 2020.
According to field studies by Za Zemiata, unofficial recyclers handle between 70,000 and 100,000 tonnes of recyclables every year, accounting for between 41 and 57 percent of such material collected in the capital.
Most of the collectors are middle-aged or elderly, with two-thirds of them working seven days a week, carrying huge loads on foot or with small makeshift carts, and earning less than 10 leva (US$5.92) a day.
That amounts to a monthly income that comes close to Bulgaria’s official poverty line of 321 leva.
While collectors were happy to tell their stories, only a few agreed to give their names or be filmed by reporters.
One of them is former secretary Penka. At 63, she gets by collecting nylon and cardboard, and handing it over to her local recycling depot in return for enough money to buy food for herself and her cats.
“Seven days a week, 2.50 leva per day makes around 20 leva per week, but I am grateful,” the woman said outside the depot, clutching her daily haul of coins in her hand.
Near a rubbish container on a central boulevard, Boryana, 62, is also finding what she needs to make ends meet, carefully arranging bottles, cans and paper in separate sections of her small cart.
“I am not a pensioner yet. My husband died, I have no children, but somehow I don’t want to die yet,” she said.
In recent years, people like Penka and Boryana have become a common sight in the capital of the EU’s poorest member state.
However, Za Zemiata said that they have remained largely invisible to the authorities and have often been unjustly vilified.
“These people do what most of the others do not. Let us stop pretending they are not there,” Za Zemiata campaigner Evgenia Tasheva said.
A recent national poll showed that 68 percent of the population does not recycle — which is not obligatory in Bulgaria.
Several schemes backed by city authorities to sort waste using different-colored containers have also fallen flat, with the result that less than one-third of the city’s waste is recycled.
A further 16 percent of the city’s rubbish ends up in landfills, while the rest is converted to fuel, with city authorities recently green-lighting a new power plant to burn it.
Za Zemiata has protested against the plant, saying that the authorities should focus instead on integrating collectors like Penka and Boryana into the waste disposal system as a way of boosting recycling.
However, any such move would likely face stiff opposition from the contractors who run the city’s official recycling schemes and who accuse the unofficial collectors of “hindering” their work by rummaging through their bins.
“Piles of litter are left around the containers, which discourages people from taking part in the separation system,” contractor Ekobulpack said in comments e-mailed to reporters.
Za Zemiata has also raised the alarm over a recent official decision to move the depots where unofficial collectors hand in their materials to the outskirts of the city as of next year, citing complaints about pollution and noise.
The organization fears that the decision could push collectors like Penka and Boryana even further into poverty.
“We collect, separate like ants — to earn our living. But I think we are also doing good. If that ends, I’ll put out a hand, if someone drops something in it,” a 60-year-old recycler shrugged as he turned in a huge pile of refuse paper to earn his wage for the day.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of