Waste collection systems provider Sulo Group has extended its presence and activities across Eastern Europe with growing sales in Romania and the formation of a new sales partnership in Bulgaria.
The group, a major molder of wheeled plastic waste bins used in recycling, and an offshoot of Plastic Omnium's environmental business, says it is now present in almost every EU country in Central and Eastern Europe.
Herford, Germany-based Sulo plans to take advantage of a growing market in Romania and Bulgaria which are still in the process of installing waste management infrastructure to meet EU requirements.
In Romania, where Sulo has been operating for three years, it has so far delivered more than 75,000 2-wheel and 4-wheel waste bins in the regions of Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania. It recorded the two biggest contracts in 2014 in the cities of Cluj-Napoca and Iasi.
Sulo's sustainable ‘Green Made Bin' plastic containers, based on ethylene produced from sugar cane, have attracted particularly high demand in Romania, the firm said.
Bulgaria, with a population of around 7 million, will require about 5 million 2-wheel waste bins and some 800,000 4-wheel containers, Sulo estimates.
Although waste separation is required by law, it is not yet implemented due to a lack of bins, so waste is still collected in unit containers and later separated in the landfill. There, the recycling rate is significantly below the EU average because of this “unsuitable” method, according to Sulo.
It expects it will take two to three years before Bulgaria has the waste management infrastructure in place which will require the supply of adequate containers. The country will get EU funding to meet the community standard.
“Both Romania and Bulgaria were significantly later than Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic to join the EU and are now making a significant effort to meet the agreed deadlines of the accession agreement,” said Christophe Gence, CEO of Sulo Umwelttechnik.
In Warsaw, the firm won contracts for 100,000 bins in 2013 and 2014, while it sold up to 400,000 containers for Budapest in 2012-13.
In Bulgaria, Sulo has established a sales partnership with a national company BM Leasing.
