TIRANA, Sept. 29 – A controversial decision to approve waste imports “to revive the recycling industry” continues to stir heated debate in Albania, with activists vowing to stop waste imports with protests, while seeking a referendum and a presidential veto to stop the implementation of a law approved last week by the Socialist-led ruling coalition.
The government says only a few recyclable waste products will be imported for use in the recycling industry. Civil society and environmentalist groups say they fear Albania will become Europe’s dumping site.
The main opposition Democratic Party said this week it would seek a referendum on the matter, saying it supports civil society efforts to stop the imports, reversing its own earlier support of waste imports.
The Ministry of Environment has tried to reassure the public, saying that the imported waste will not be hazardous to their health.
Prime Minister Edi Rama said the law will only allow imports of materials such as plastics, paper, wood and aluminium, and will prohibit burning or burying of waste.
Meeting with recycling industry representatives, following last week’s adoption of the controversial bill, Prime Minister Rama said that the waste imports will revive the struggling industry which has been certified by the European Union.
“The only thing we did was to allow local plants to buy paper, plastics, aluminium and wood waste to compensate their shortage,” Rama said.
He added the country needs to import waste to meet the needs of the industry, but in the future the country will follow European Union’s steps and collect its own recyclable waste separately.
According to Rama, the imports and recycling process will be based on a Public Private Partnership method and pave the way to the opening of about 1,000 jobs.
The controversial bill needs to be approved by President Bujar Nishani to enter into force. During an interview for Voice of America earlier this week, President Nishani said that as soon as he returns to Albania from his New York visit, he will go through the draft along with his advisers. Nishani said that the bill has been met with concerns by many citizens and that “citizen awareness is the core of any institutional behavior.”
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha believes that the country is not prepared to deal with waste imports and that the government is not reliable to control the process.
Basha has repeatedly expressed his concern over the waste bill and questioned Rama’s political will to control the waste import in the country.
He accused Rama and his governing party of drafting a bill “motivated by criminal interests.”
Basha called on President Nishani to not decree the bill and warned that it will deposit an official request for a referendum against the legal amendments adopted last Thursday.
“We will take into account our constitutional rights and role to allow citizens to have a say on the matter. We are planning to ask the parliament to approve a referendum for the ban of waste imports. This request will require the signature of at least 28 members of parliament and then it can be approved by the assembly” Basha said.
Although the law says that a referendum request needs the approval of two thirds of the MPs, the opposition leader hopes that president Nishani will overturn the bill.
“Our parliamentary group will do everything in its power to impede the approval of this bill for a second time around,” Basha said. “The approval of this bill has transformed Albania into an easy target of everyone who wants to throw their hazardous trash out of their country to ours, but also of international criminal groups also known as the international waste mafia.”
Other members of the opposition have voiced their concern regarding the waste import bill. Democratic Party MP Albana Vokshi accused the government of being unable to exercise control on cannabis plantations let alone on waste imports.
She described the waste business as “dangerous and problematic, particularly in a country where the civil society is neither obliged, nor able to monitor waste imports.”
In 2013, the Democratic Party led government eyed the adoption of a similar bill for imports of imports of non-hazardous waste.
Rama and the Socialist Party-led government opposed it and officially banned waste imports, based on an electoral campaign promise. Although the approval of the bill is perceived as a betrayal of that promise, Prime Minister Rama blamed speculations on the bill and guaranteed that the “previous bill created space for imports of waste for the purpose of burning and burying, and allowed the licensing of all kinds of importers.”
“The new bill is more restrictive and acknowledges the right of all companies involved in industrial recycling to import green waste. Everything else is speculation in an effort to abuse with a natural and understandable public reaction to this topic,” Rama said.
Environmentalists and members of the civil society have strongly opposed the bill and warned that they will call a referendum on the matter.
According to members of the Alliance against Waste Imports, environmentalists need to collect at least 50,000 signatures to push for the approval of a referendum.
In 2013 when the Democrats approved a similar legislation, activists of the civil society called for a referendum and collected the over 64,000 signatures against it.
The referendum was supposed to be held on December 2013 but it was called off after the left-wing government took office and banned waste imports, making a referendum unnecessary.
Now, the Alliance against Waste Imports warns that they efforts will not go in vain because the alliance is more organized and determined to not allow waste imports.
During the previous week, many activists took to the streets and sprayed the names of many politicians who voted for the bill in the capital’s garbage bins.
Two of these activists were detained and then released by police. All eyes are now on President Nishani who is tasked to decree the law. If Nishani returns the bill to parliament than the government will need at least 71 votes to enforce the bill.
