Convergent analysis of waste water practices among EU countries

Bozhidar Ivanov and Hrabrin Bachev

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to study the degree of convergence in the production and the disposal of sewage sludge, as well as to focus on the sludge disposal in agriculture among selected EU countries and to compare trends and the position that Bulgaria ranks in this aspects. The wastewater in sewage system is a crucial issue for EU and Bulgaria for many years and it strengthens the importance in the context of sustainable development, bioeconomy and mitigating the climate changes. Due to complex and unequivocal properties of sludge, the disposal and utilization is subject to restrictions and special regulation governance. The applied method for measuring the convergence stands on the classical way of Beta and Sigma convergence but instead of using correlation, standard deviation and variation, it uses the proportions between countries and the subtractions between them in a particular year based on previous one. Bulgaria manages to achieve a significant progress in the period 2007-2018 compared to selected EU countries in the covered three indicators – production of sludge, disposal and application to agriculture. It means the convergence is notable and for the period, Bulgaria closes the gap in sludge utilization with selected countries, while the application in agriculture is the indicator, where the progress in convergence is most tangible and it is the most used sludge utilization alternative.

Keywords: agriculture; convergence; environment pollution; sludge disposal; wastewater

Date published: 2021-04-15