TIRANA, March 7 – Business associations say the waste recycling industry in the country is on the brink of bankruptcy after state inspectors have revoked licences to local companies operating in Tirana to pave the way for the upcoming waste-to-energy plant that will use incinerators to burn waste and produce electricity.
Albania has already built its first waste-to-energy plant in Elbasan, central Albania and has signed concession contracts backed by the central government to build two new such plants in Tirana and Fier, despite environmental concerns by local residents and environmentalists worried over the new plants and their incinerators increasing dangerous pollution in the country.
The Union of Albanian Producers and the Association of Recyclers have condemned what they call extra-legal actions for several months now by the State Environment Inspectorate against a considerable number of private operators active in waste collection and recycling in Tirana.
The associations claim the private operators have suffered a series of arbitrary and illegal administrative penalties, culminating with the revocation and suspension of environmental permits, a situation which has led to the total suspension of activity, violating constitutional rights to entrepreneurship and private property.
“The penalties have severely financially damaged the waste recycling enterprises and public interest as a result of massive job cuts, compromising the recycling industry,” they say in a statement.
Business representatives demand a stop to what they call a repressive and discriminative campaign, demanding the renewal of environmental permits and licences as well as engagement in dialogue to end what they call “amateur solutions to the economy.”
The Alliance Against Waste Import has also condemned the campaign against waste recyclers which they say is being carried out to favor concessionaires in the waste-to-energy plants, known as incinerators.
In 2013, the Alliance Against Waste Imports, AKIP, collected more than 60,000 signatures to hold a nationwide referendum later invalidated by the Central Election Commission following a government decision banning waste imports. Alliance activists also strongly protested a late 2016 decision to allow the import of non-hazardous waste, later turned down by the country’s president and dropped due to strong opposition.
“The Alliance considers this attack against collectors, especially plastic collectors as commitment by the government to go further with its completely wrong decision-making to build incinerators in Fier, Tirana and elsewhere and considers pollution from these collection sites only as an excuse for this illegal action,” it said in a statement.
“The concession decisions, up to now, only for the construction of incinerators in Albania at a capacity of 100 percent of waste generated in the country clearly shows that the government is intentionally taking the recycling business to bankruptcy,” the Alliance said.
“In addition, the capacity of these incinerators will soon require the import of waste as their technology does not allow their switching off based on the quantity of waste. They have to keep burning 24/7.”
The Alliance says it is cooperating with local recyclers on an anti-incinerator alternative based on local and European legislation that it will introduce to the Albanian government next spring.
Concern over incinerators
Last year, the Albanian government concluded contract negotiations on a 30-year concession to build a waste-to-energy plant in Tirana, the third such license to be awarded in Albanian territory despite environmental concerns and in some cases protests by local residents in the previous two projects.
The first waste-to-energy plant has been operational in Elbasan since April 2017 under a 7-year concession contract. A similar plant in Fier has been strongly opposed by local residents over environmental concerns, leading to the displacement of its planned location twice.
All three incinerators are overwhelming owned by a Netherlands-based Albanian-owned company, which the opposition has accused as linked to the government.
Prime Minister Edi Rama has described such waste-to-energy plants as a perfect solution to the long-standing issue of waste management in the country.
However, environmentalists are worried the new plants and their incinerators will further increase dangerous pollution in the country.
The waste-to-energy plants and their big processing capacities have also worried waste recycling companies which have been suffering following a 2013 ban on waste imports because of inappropriate municipal waste separation systems.
Investments in the recycling industry which employs 35,000 people are estimated at €120 million
Waste management has been a chronic issue in Albania in the past two decades, with widespread burning and dumping having negative effects on human health, the environment and the rapidly growing tourism industry.
Waste burning in the open air just outside Durres, Albania’s second largest city, and next to a public university, has sparked serious health and environmental concerns for local residents and students.
Only about two-thirds of the country’s 2.9 million resident population has access to public waste treatment and disposal services, making waste management one of the key issues of concern for local communities and hundreds of thousands of tourists visiting Albania.
Three quarters of Albania’s municipal waste is landfilled, about 17 percent is recycled, 3 percent is incinerated and 1.2 percent is still dumped, according to 2016 data by state statistical institute, INSTAT.
