The product fee on motor vehicles stays. The environment and water committee in parliament rejected a plan to scrap it, which was in the original bill, at second reading of changes to the Waste Management Act put forward by Bozhidar Bozhanov. MPs backed the changes at first reading on 2 September.

This report follows our earlier story on the committee vote. We reported then that the texts would go to a second-reading vote and that, if they passed, car owners would not pay the fee.

The committee approved texts that require more information to be collected on waste management. Petar Petrov of Vazrazhdane proposed that operators keep records of how waste moves between owners and sites, and of who transported and who processed it.

Operators must also report the amount and type of raw materials, materials, products and waste prepared for reuse that result from treatment.

The authors of the bill say they want to change how recovery organisations work, and how firms that meet their legal duties on their own work. They say this will also cut red tape.

Deputy environment minister Kostadin Geshev pointed out that neither the Council of Ministers nor the ministry put forward the bill. As a result, the texts have not been through public consultation, where their pros and cons could be weighed.

"Overall, we support the ideas of transparency, less red tape and more control," Geshev said. He said the subject is extremely complex, and that transparency and less red tape somewhat clash with preventive control.

The environment ministry is drafting its own bill on recovery organisations, built on a completely different concept. Its proposals may be put out for public consultation by the end of the month.