Waste prevention country profile
Albania
April 2023
© Joël Cavallaro,Well with Nature/EEA
Country profile: Albania
General information
Name of the country/ region Albania
Coverage of the waste National
prevention programme
(national/ regional)
Type of programme (stand Integrated into waste management plan
alone or integrated into waste
management plan)
Title of programme and link National strategy on integrated solid waste
to programme management (ISWM) 2020-2035
Duration of programme 2020-2035
Language Albanian/English
Contact person in the N/A
country/region
Development process of the Approved in May 2020. Implementation began in 2021.
programme/ revision
Foreseen budget for N/A
implementation of the project
WASTE GENERATION
The first Albanian waste prevention programme (WPP) was implemented in 2010. However,
municipal waste generation per capita increased significantly between 2013 and 2018 from 325 kg to
462 kg (see Figure 1) along with a 24% growth in GDP in the same period (Figure 2). GDP then
stagnated from 2018 to 2020 and per capita MSW generation decreased significantly from 462 to 369
kg. This is nonetheless lower than the EU average of 517 kg1 in 2020. Note: total waste (excluding
major mineral wastes) is not available.
Figure 1: Municipal waste generation in Albania (kg per capita), 2004-2020
Albania
550
500
450
400
350
300
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Source: Eurostat [ENV_WASMUN]
Figure 2: Growth rate of GDP (main GDP aggregates, chain linked) and population in Albania 2010
to 2020 (2010=100)
Albania
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020
GDP Population
Source: Eurostat [NAMA_10_PC, DEMO_GIND]
1 Based on data collected from Eurostat in September 2022.
WASTE PREVENTION PROGRAMME
Objectives and priorities
1. Waste prevention objectives The main goal of the ISWM is to provide strategic directions
of the Programme and determine a number of measures that help the country to
- quantitative objectives join the European Union by fulfilling the obligations deriving
(waste reduction) from Chapter 27 dedicated on the field of environment. It
- qualitative objectives was developed on the vision of the “zero waste” concept, so
(reduction of hazardous that waste is collected and treated as raw material and
substances/ environmental management is done in line with the circular economy.
impacts)
The ISWM lists a number of specific objectives. A selection
of those that are more relevant to waste prevention is listed
below:
• OS1: Improving waste management by meeting key
principles and legal planning requirements
• OS2. The waste management legal framework is
improved and harmonized with the European
Directives and an efficient national institutional
system is set up
• (SO3): Establishment of an integrated management
system for other municipal waste streams, which is
based on the waste hierarchy.
• OS 6. Waste management is a national priority and
an important part of the planning of foreign aid
funds, IFI and EU through IPA funds.
• (SO 8): Citizens use and respect waste infrastructure
and become part of the measures to meet the
objectives of Local Plans.
• (SO9): All hazardous waste streams that have been
produced or are being produced in the territory of the
country by the public and private sector have been
identified.
2. Sectors covered N/A
3. Priority waste types • Packaging
• Biodegradable waste
• Construction and demolition waste
• End-of-life vehicles waste
• Batteries
• WEEE
• Waste oil
• Waste tires
4. Target groups National and local government authorities, businesses,
households and consumers
Targets, indicators and monitoring
1. Indicators proposed On the specific objectives, a number of indicators were
proposed, including the following:
• Number of Municipalities and waste generators that
report data according to the system/total number of
generators
• Feasibility studies designed for all waste
management zones are in line with the waste zone
study approved by the Council of Ministers
• Number of Municipalities having an approved
IWMPs
• % of service coverage expressed as equivalent
number of inhabitants receiving services/ equivalent
number of resident inhabitants
• % of the amount of waste collected/ amount of waste
generated (as planned)
• % of the population covered by the integrated waste
management service.
• % of the population in cities with more than 100,000
inhabitants (urban areas) are covered by integrated
waste management service.
• % of other waste recovered from mixed municipal
waste versus total waste from recoverable packaging
• % of the amount of packaging waste that is recovered
at the municipal level versus the total generated
• % of the amount of waste deposited in landfill or
landfills/ total amount of waste collected ton/year
• No. of reception centers or other formats set up by
municipalities for differentiated waste collection
from demolition and construction
• % of waste from packaging collected from Extended
Product Liability Schemes
• % of batteries and accumulators sent to reception
centres and withdrawn from licensed businesses
• Number of functional schemes for the recovery and
treatment of specific waste.
• Number of full-time administrative staff employed
for waste management service throughout the
country.
• % of specialised staff trained in a year.
• No. of trainings per year for public or private
institutions generating hazardous waste
• No. of periodic trainings for companies treating
hazardous waste
• % (number of schools that have/apply waste
education in their curriculum.
2. Quantitative targets The ISWM lists the following as indicators to monitor the
progress of integrated waste management implementation.
However, they can also be seen as waste stream-specific
targets.
Until 2035, the following are set:
• Waste from packaging: at least 60% recovered,
between 15-60% recycled (depending on the type of
packaging, i.e. wood, glass, plastics, metal and paper
and cardboard)
• Biodegradable waste: reduction of 35% (compared to
2016)
• C&D waste: recycling/reduction of 70%
• EoL vehicles: at least 95% recovered, at least 85%
recycled (by weight)
• Batteries: recovery/recycling of “between 50-75% for
different materials”
• WEEE: recovery of 70-80% for different materials,
recycling 50-70% for different materials
• Waste oil: recovery of at least 40% (by weight)
• Waste tires: recovery of 65% of weight accumulated
during the year, recycling of 50% of weight
accumulated during the year
3. Monitoring of programme The ISMW sets out 5-year timetables, between 2020 and
3035, for the assessment of the progress towards
implementation, by making use of a number of measurable
progress indicators. The first progress monitoring was
conducted for the implementation years of 2020-2021.
4. Evaluation of the programme N/A
Prevention measures
Implemented prevention The state of waste management in Albania is such that most of the
measures according to Article 9 focus is to develop sufficient waste management infrastructure
(namely for waste collection and treatment) and develop general
public awareness and education on waste management. As such,
most of the measures in the ISWM reflect this. Nonetheless,
measures that relate more to waste prevention pertaining to Article
9 of the WFD are included in the table below.
The waste prevention programme includes the following measures that are proposed to avoid waste
generation (Chapter 1.5):
Table 1: Specific waste prevention measures structured according to Art 9 WFD
Promote and support sustainable
consumption models
Encourage the design, manufacturing and
use of products that are resource-efficient,
durable (including in terms of life span and
absence of planned obsolence), reparable,
re-usable and upgradable.
Target products containing critical raw Import/production from all businesses for specific
materials to prevent that those materials stream products, in accordance with the “extended
become waste. producer responsibility” principle, set up special
and/or joint schemes in cooperation with the
Municipalities of the country and other users of
specific waste, such as tires, batteries, electrical and
electronic waste, organic waste, end-of-life vehicles,
etc., for their recovery and treatment.
Encourage the re-use of products and the The LESS-WASTE-II project involves the
setting up of systems promoting repair and development of an action plan for the management
re-use activities, including in particular for of bio-wastes at the cross-border region of Albania
electrical and electronic equipment, textiles and Greece (Interreg Instrument for Pre-Accession
and furniture, as well as packaging and Assistance crossborder cooperation programme
construction materials and products. ‘Greece-Albania 2014-2020’, 2021). The Ministry of
Environment, in cooperation with Japan
International Cooperation Agency, has begun a
project on waste reduction and the promotion of
reuse, reduction and recycling in some
municipalities, including:
• Tirana municipality
• Himara
• Peqin
• Cërrik municipality
• Vau Dej municipality, extending to other
municipalities
The Ministry responsible for the environment
proposes the types of tax revenues for different
categories of products on the Albanian market and
uses these funds to promote the reduction of the
amount of waste, their reuse and recycling.
Encourage, as appropriate and without
prejudice to intellectual property rights , the
availability of spare parts, instruction
manuals, technical information, or other
instruments, equipment or software
enabling the repair and re-use of products
without compromising their quality and
safety.
Reduce waste generation in processes • Establishment of a database on the
related to industrial production, extraction hazardous waste (inventorying the waste
of minerals, manufacturing, construction inherited from existing industries, by
and demolition, taking into account best industry currently generating hazardous
available techniques. waste).
• Drafting of the Master Plan for specific
waste streams including hazardous waste
• Guidelines, protocols and training
programmes are developed for hazardous
waste management.
Reduce the generation of food waste in
primary production, in processing and
manufacturing, in retail and other
distribution of food, in restaurants and food
services as well as in households as a
contribution to the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goal to reduce by
50 % per capita global food waste at the
retail and consumer levels and to reduce
food losses along production and supply
chains by 2030.
Encourage food donation and other
redistribution for human consumption,
prioritising human use over animal feed and
the reprocessing into non-food products.
Promote the reduction of the content of
hazardous substances in materials and
products, without prejudice to harmonised
legal requirements concerning those
materials and products laid down at Union
level, and ensure that any supplier of an
article as defined in point 33 of Article 3 of
Regulation (EC) No. 1907/2006 of the
European Parliament and of the Council
provides the information pursuant to article
33(1) of that regulation to the European
Chemicals Agency as from 5 January 2021.
Reduce the generation of waste, in
particular waste that is not suitable for
preparing for re-use or recycling.
Identify products that are the main sources • Implementation of the national extended
of littering, notably in natural and marine producer responsibility schemes for
environments, and take appropriate packaging and packaging waste
measures to prevent and reduce litter from • Central Government, in line with the
such products, where Member States decide extended producer responsibility principle
to implement this obligation through market and/or in partnership with businesses
restrictions, they shall ensure that such ensures the implementation of the national
restrictions are proportionate and non- extended producer responsibility schemes
discriminatory. for packaging and packaging waste, etc.
Aim to halt the generation of marine litter
as a contribution towards the United
Nations Sustainable Development Goal to
prevent and significantly reduce marine
pollution of all kinds.
Develop and support information • “Green procurement” expertise covered by
campaigns to raise awareness about waste Universities
prevention and littering. • Municipalities organise annual “Let’s do It”
public awareness campaigns promoting
responsible environmental behaviour and
reduction, reuse and recycling.
• Educational materials and courses are
disseminated to schools across the country
to help them organize classes and
educational activities for their students.
FOOD WASTE PREVENTION
Food waste generation
Estimates suggest that every private household in Albania wastes around 7-13 kg of food every year.
This amounts to 18 000-37 000 tonnes per year at the national level (Preka et al., 2020).
Measures to prevent food waste
Food Bank Albania, founded in 2015, is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the fight against food
waste in Albania and is the first national initiative to address this issue. It raises awareness about food
waste throughout Albanian society. The organisation combines the goal of reducing food waste with
that of eradicating poverty, based on the assumption that these two issues are strongly linked, i.e. the
distribution of food surpluses (instead of wasting them) contributes to improving the living conditions
and food security of low-income households in Albania. To address food surpluses, the Food Bank
works with businesses (e.g. supermarkets, farmers), the Albanian Red Cross, institutions and
individuals to collect food donations and raise awareness about food waste. The collected food is
provided to over 40 nongovernmental organisations, 10 social soup kitchens and the state social
services involved in the fight against poverty. Food Bank Albania also provides information to
Albanian households to support them in reducing food waste, saving money and protecting the
environment.
REUSE OF PRODUCTS
Data
N/A
Measures to support reuse
N/A
Best practice examples
A ‘dialogue forum’ on the waste sector was established in 2017. The forum, which aims to discuss
key issues affecting the sector, was very active between 2017 and 2019. Due to the COVID-19
situation, the forum is no longer active. It will, however, resume once it is appropriate to have in-
person meetings again.
The Project for the support of waste minimisation and 3R promotion in Republic of Albania,
implemented by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, aims to introduce the 3R framework
(reduce, reuse, recycle) to sustainable solid waste management within local governments in Albania to
reduce waste in a nationwide effort. Pilot projects have been finalised and include:
• Vau i Dejës municipality. Solutions for reducing agricultural/green waste were explored and
the pilot project identified the challenge of introducing on-site and offsite composting to
reduce agricultural/green waste. The project also offered opportunities to maintain a clean
environment and efficient waste collection in rural areas.
• Cërrik municipality. The pilot project identified the challenge of making recycling
economically feasible and offered opportunities to develop efficient door-to-door waste
collection services to support a clean environment.
• Tirana municipality. The pilot project showed that schools have high potential to raise
students’ and their parents’ awareness on the issue of recycling (Republic of Albania
(Ministry of Environment et al., 2017).
A project on the prevention of marine litter began in 2018, involving local and national actors in the
waste and recycling industries in Albania, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its focus is on
regional cooperation and the exchange of knowledge between national institutions, municipalities and
companies. The project promotes a regulatory framework for reducing and banning single-use plastic
items (GIZ, 2018).
Links to circular economy
Waste prevention is an integral part of the comprehensive transformation towards a circular economy.
It reduces the input of natural resources into the economy as well as the necessary efforts to collect
and recycle waste.
Approaches for improving circularity are often highly interlinked with successful waste prevention.
The following table shows which circular strategies are explicitly integrated into the waste prevention
programme.
Topic Addressed in the programme Comments
Eco-design N/A
Repair, refurbishment and N/A
remanufacture
Recycling Yes Recycling is recognized as a
major priority as part of the
country’s development of
integrated waste management
and its shift towards the
circular economy.
Economic incentives and finance N/A
Circular business models N/A
Eco-innovation N/A
Governance, skills and knowledge N/A
