Waste Management in Albania: Cërrik and Lezha Cases

Abstract

Waste management in Albania has become an important issue after the collapse of communist regime in 1991. Since then, there has been movement of the population toward the cities. Due to the rapid growth of the population in these areas, this growth has brought the need for developing Waste Management (WM). Another driver for the development of WM is European Union (EU) integration, in this context, Albania has to adopt the EU legislation in order to be part of the EU, so they have adopted the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) of 2008 and approved the Law No. 10463, dated 22.9. 2011 “On Integrated Waste Management” and National Waste Management Plan (NPWM). WM has become part of the political agenda of the last two governments and there is realistic support for the development of this issue. But there are many challenges regarding development; one is the unsuccessful implementation of the Law, as well as public awareness is very poor and requires promotional campaigns for WM. Since 1994 the responsibility for waste has been for Local Governments (LG), but it must be mentioned that the LGs are dependent on the budget of the Central Government (CG) which are very limited. There is also a difference between municipalities regarding the development of WM; some of them have handed over WM to the private sector, such as Lezhawhere one can seea very good example that has taken many steps forward; and, Cërrik, where WM is done by the LG, that has made only few steps toward WM development,. The progress in WM has come as result of shifting toward the private sector, where the municipality has become the coordinator. Thesis purpose is to provide description of the current situation of WM in Albania. What steps has been taken to develop WM. Why and how has the Albanian Law adopted EU directives and is so difficult to be implemented. Lastly, the cases of Cërrik and Lezha demonstrate better the situation of WM and which case to be applied by all the municipalities in the country.