"In Albania, money is stolen"/ Malltezi: Standards in waste management are lacking

2026-04-20 17:21:00, Aktualitet CNA

"In Albania, money is stolen"/ Malltezi: Standards in waste management

The head of the Environment Department in the Democratic Party, Jamarbër Malltezi, stated in a television interview that in Albania there is mismanagement of public funds and a significant lack of standards in the field of the environment, especially in waste treatment.

During the interview, Malltezi said that according to him, money is being stolen and this has led to dysfunctional institutions and a lack of effective investments in the sector. He also claimed that environmental professionals have been dismissed and replaced with individuals without experience in the sector.

Focusing on the waste situation, Malltezi mentioned the repeated fires in landfills and storage sites in several cities, including Elbasan, Vlora, Durrës, Tirana and Shkodra.

According to him, in some cases fires may be intentional to reduce waste, while in other cases they are related to a lack of technical standards.

He stressed that waste management should include recycling, reuse and the treatment of gases such as methane, arguing that the landfill should not be just a storage site.

Malltezi also criticized the lack of wastewater treatment systems and environmental pollution monitoring.

According to him, the lack of proper infrastructure and technology in landfills increases the risk of fires and air pollution, describing the situation as problematic for public health and the environment.

"Here money is stolen. There is money, money is stolen and therefore nothing is managed. Secondly, here specialists are absent from work. Here only patrons are wanted."

Someone who doesn't like the word, the thought, doesn't like the sultan, he is simply dismissed. Unfortunately, there are specialists who have graduated in environmental science and work in their environmental field.

Their jobs have been taken, unfortunately, by patronage agents with no connection. Let's keep in mind, in this specific case, you said that these are repeated fires.

We have fires that occur constantly in Elbasan, constantly in Vlora, constantly in Durrës, and constantly in Tirana, and now we have them in Shkodra as well.

There are two elements. In Vlora, it has been seen that fires are being set intentionally. The waste is being set on fire intentionally in order to reduce the amount of waste and so that there are places where there are no more places to throw the waste.

However, it must be said that there are two options. Either it is intentional and it is criminal, or if it is not intentional then it is still a terrible lack of standards.

Why do I say this? Because normally next to every landfill there should be, first of all, a recycling center. A recycling and reuse center. It's the famous three R's of waste treatment.

So, reduce waste, reuse waste, recycle waste. Unfortunately, we don't do any of these.

We simply created a landfill and think that with the landfill we have created, we have solved everything.

We stole the money, when I say we, the government stole the money and thought it solved the issue with the incinerator.

And what are you doing? You're incinerating it openly. So you're just burning it in the open. It's criminal, it's theft, it's a lack of standards, it's a dismissal of professionals.

Normally, in every landfill you must first have a plant treated in such a way that you reduce waste that has a high calorific value and can cause fires.

So, those wastes that have calorific value, you can take them to industries that need fuel. So, for example, cement industries ask you to take them fuel.

If you have fuel that has calorific value, they will immediately take it, the plastic, to burn.

They ask you. Why not take it there? And here you can reduce the amount of waste, if you want. If you had a normal government that thought about the environment.

Secondly, just by reusing or recycling waste, we could reduce waste by 1/3 to 50%. And what does this do? It increases the lifespan of the landfill.

On the other hand, we must keep in mind that there are technological processes that must also be accompanied. So, it is not enough to simply throw the waste in the landfill and you are fine. No, because that waste, especially organic waste, decomposes over time.

As they decompose, they release gases that burn, mainly methane, which is a gas that catches fire very easily. Therefore, it is suggested that, first, reduction, recycling, and then if you are going to throw it in a landfill, then you will need to accompany the technological process with periodic covering with soil.

So, don't just leave it for a few days or weeks in a row and just dump the waste and that's it, but after each dump of waste, use the rollers, use the tractors and lay down, let's say, a thin layer of soil.

A landfill is not just a pit. It must be understood that it is not just a storage place. There are other technical elements as well.

So, before a landfill is built, you have to build its drainage system. So, where will the water that will be the waste water go?

Normally, these are called lychees. These are, by definition, hazardous waste. Unfortunately, in Albania, these are not treated anywhere. These are thrown into the river and can poison the entire population below, food products and end up in human health. It's terrible.

But there is one more thing that must also be there: the landfill must have a plant to capture the gases that are released.

So, there must be pipes in it so that the gases, mainly methane, that are released, can be captured and used to fill cylinders and can be used in various industries or for heating.

But we need this system that captures these gases. Don't leave them in nature. Unfortunately, none of our landfills, with a small exception, maybe Korça and Vergoi, are built according to international standards, the other landfills we simply have are storage sites and that's it. They simply throw away the waste, they throw soil on top of the waste once a week or once every two weeks and that's it. It's terrible because it's not according to standards.

The lack of standards causes these to explode later. Either like uncontrolled fires, or like the first moment like a bomb, that you don't understand, wait, someone threw a grenade.

It's simply these gases with high calorific value, mainly methane, which have nowhere to go and over time, as the pressure increases, this gas explodes.

Smoke is polluting, but what is the problem? Since we don't have any reliable measurement system, which is accredited and we can say that this is definitely pollution and this pollution is causing this.

We don't have that either. Unfortunately, what happens? We don't have proper landfills. Not having proper landfills, we don't monitor either the groundwater that comes out of those landfills or the waste that circulates in the air.

And what does it do? Only when it explodes, when it burns, and when we see the toxic smoke, only then do we remember.

If we consider that every day, the residents around there, because this waste is not properly treated, breathe in fumes and polluted air.

The point is that they can't know how many cells can turn into cancerous cells or die per day from uncontrolled smoke, and they only remember when they see the smoke that takes up the entire mountain or overwhelms the entire city.

"At that point it's too late. At that point we clearly see that this smoke is carcinogenic smoke, it's clearly harmful, but the problem is that we don't have any relevant, reliable measurement system to show what the level of pollution is and what this level of pollution can cause in the long term," Malltezi declares./ CNA