By Baldur Baldoni
After reading your article, for an attentive EU citizen walking through Tirana, this has recently led to some questions about the rationality of the economic and political discussion. I am talking about waste.
Albania is always seeking new investments and investors. Obviously, there should be praise for good efforts because there must have been a major investment in recycling businesses. But this must have taken place in secret; since apparently we have so many recyclers, diagnosis shows that there is not enough waste in Albania to feed them all. And I ask myself why investors do not do the same in other fields too. First one should invest, and then look after clients. Let’s change scenario. We open a bakery and then ask people to buy more bread. But if they don’t, then we ask politicians to look for other clients in another country in order to buy it. Well, usually it is the other way around: first the demand and then the supply.
But also by looking at the offers, I think that nobody could claim that Albania does not have enough waste on its own for recyclers! Nearly all tourists I have met told me the same story: it is a nice country with friendly people – but there is waste everywhere! Albanians say the same thing. Now what is said is that Albania does not have own recycling capacities. My only rhetorical question is whether Albanians are not intelligent enough to separate waste? Of course they are! It just needs to start – with respective rubbish bins, regular maintenance, training people for separation, developing transportation network countrywide etc. It needs investment from politics and businesses, and it would be worth. By the way, this would kill two birds with one stone: Albania would create many sustainable workplaces in all fields of waste management and additionally, Albania would make a step forward to develop sustainable tourism. I would like to mention New Zealand and other countries which are characterized by a booming tourism and that is because they take care of their environment and are not completely dirty and polluted.
I think I already have the answer from the tens of thousands of Albanians that have demonstrated in the streets against the import of waste: Albanians are not stupid!
