TIRANA, July 7 – Three ruling Socialist Party MPs have proposed lifting a ban on waste imports in a bid to give a boost to the ailing recycling industry which has seen a cut in investment and jobs since the late 2013 ban.
The amendments to the integrated waste management law target reintroducing imports of non-hazardous waste to help one of the key industries in the country recover.
“The ban of imports led the recycling industry to cut its capacity utilization rate to 30 percent, incurring huge losses and cutting jobs. Investments in this sector which employs 35,000 people are estimated at Euro 120 million,” say a report accompanying the proposed changes to the law, also signed by Eduard Shalsi, a ruling Socialist Party MP, who chairs the productive activities and environment parliamentary committee.
The ban of waste imports was one of the first three decisions the new Socialist Party-led government made in mid-September 2013 immediately after swearing-in, making unnecessary a referendum initiated by the Alliance Against Waste Imports, AKIP.
The legal changes will open up opportunities in the recycling sector by creating dozens of thousands of jobs, say the MPs.
Given the fact that there are no appropriate municipal waste separation systems, companies are forced to rely on the informal sector, which is currently taking out thousands of tons of recycling waste from municipal landfills and dumpsites, solving Albania`s problem of landfills filling up, the UN says.
Any government`s initiative should take into account this informal sector which currently includes 10,000 to 40,000 self-employed individuals and their families. The recycling industry itself directly employs 3,000 workers, stakeholders said at a workshop on plastic waste.
