Referendum on waste import requested

TIRANA, March 13 – The Alliance Against the Import of Waste in Albania sent to the Central Election Commission a request for a referendum after it said they had collected 60,000 signatures against the import of waste in the country.
They say Albania doesn’t have the necessary capacities to treat foreign waste.
The law on integrated waste management in Albania was approved by Parliament last year, while its critics have vowed to hold a referendum to overturn it.
The local media has also reported that Brussels will send to Albania a team of investigators to check the whereabouts of some 588 tons of waste coming from France.
Meanwhile the IFC and Swiss Cooperation Office in Tirana held the first public-private roundtable on sustainable and integrated solid waste management in Tirana in order to help engage the private sector companies in Albania’s solid waste management.
Isabel Perich, Country Director of Swiss Cooperation Office in Albania, said, “We are glad to partner with IFC on this initiative and also present a concrete experience of solid waste management in Shkodra and Lezha municipalities, supported by Switzerland. We are also pleased to share a Swiss-German experience of Public-Private Partnership on co-processing waste material in cement production, which we hope that it could be feasibly applied in the Albanian reality.”
Sustainable and integrated solid waste management refers to the economically profitable, environmentally and socially responsible solid waste management, which includes recycling, reusing, co-processing, incineration, pre-treatment and landfilling of solid waste. Sustainable and integrated solid waste mana-gement eliminates uncontrolled burning or dumping of waste.
The roundtable provided an innovative setting for representatives of the local and central government, parliamen-tarians, private sector, NGOs, IFC and Swiss experts in relevant areas, international financing institutions and donor organizations to discuss issues regarding private sector participation in sustainable and integrated solid waste management projects in Albania’s municipalities, as well as international best practice in this field.