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Turning off the incinerator increases the mountain of garbage in Elbasan

2024-04-08 19:00:00, Denoncim CNA

In March 2015, on the side of the former metallurgical combine in Elbasan, work began on the construction of the first waste processing and energy production plant in Albania.

According to the government, the incinerator would provide a solution to the collection and accumulation of waste and would produce green energy through their technological treatment.

It is a plant that is being established for the first time in our country, but with this establishment it also constitutes the foundation to radically transform all relationships with the environment in their first step, the relationship with waste, with trash that has been around for 20 years drowning Albania, they got out of control and that we have decided to turn from a source of pollution and cancer into a source of energy', said Prime Minister Edi Rama, at the start of the works for the plant that was expected to produce about 17,250 MWh of energy per year when it was put to work.

Two years later, the prime minister together with several other high officials returned to Elbasan to inaugurate the start of the plant's work.

At noon on April 18, 2017, the head of government among hundreds of participants inaugurated the incinerator of Elbasan - the first work of waste processing and energy production in Albania.

Turning off the incinerator increases the mountain of garbage in Elbasan

"From the garbage field that was burning in the open air and poisoned the whole city, to the sanitary field of European standards where the waste is used for energy production," the Prime Minister emphasized during the inauguration ceremony.

Six years later...

The Elbasan incinerator cost the state budget 26 million euros and is the smallest among the three planned plants. Currently, this plant is the only one that has been completed out of the three costly public private partnership contracts of the Albanian government, which are being investigated for corruption and money laundering by the Special Prosecutor's Office, SPAK.

Despite the propaganda about the technology and the solution it would offer in waste processing, in these six years the plant has not delivered the promised results.

The data provided by Faktoje show that the incinerator has been ignited by fire, undoing the great promise for the environmental renaissance of Elbasan, which has increased the mountain with untreated waste.

"In 2023, the plant was switched on in April and the shutdown process was carried out in December 2023. The plant is currently under repair," Faktoje told Faktoje, the public company Eco-Elb that manages the incinerator since December 2021 (via a lease contract with the Seized and Confiscated Assets Administration Agency, AAPSK.)

From December 21 of last year, the Elbasan incinerator turned off the turbines and went back to repair, but the EcoElb company did not give us any explanation about what caused the defect and how much it costs to repair it. Also, the questions about when the incinerator would be put into operation and what will be done with the mountain of untreated waste in the landfill when the turbines are restarted remained unanswered.

Turning off the incinerator increases the mountain of garbage in Elbasan

Mountain with remains on the edge of Shkumbin

For four months, all the waste from the municipalities of the Elbasan district that is being deposited in the landfill is not being treated, creating a mountain of garbage that is risking a new environmental crisis in Elbasan.

"Today, there the pollution is thrown into the river Shkumbin and goes all the way to the Adriatic Sea because all the waste, the flows, go into the river because they have no protection. Without any kind of preliminary treatment, the pits have been filled and turned into mountains," Ahmet Mehmeti, an expert on environmental issues, argues for Faktoje.

'A financial black hole that turned into a black mountain that is only a source of evil.', he continues, adding that mountains of garbage are a potential risk for fire outbreaks, whether intentional or unintentional.

For the biologist Olsi Nika, the situation created with the waste in Elbasan is an 'ecological emergency'.

There will be mountains of waste, they will not be burned for 1001 reasons (not under investigation, not corruption, not a defect, not a breakdown). They will not be burned because there was never thought of an incineration process, there was thought of the scheme that appeared in the media. And then it will become a real ecological emergency.', warns Nika from Eco Albania.

Last year, the Elbasan plant received from the District Municipalities an average monthly amount of waste of 3,936 tons per month, or 47,000 tons of waste.

"The average daily amount of waste that arrives at the Plant is 140 tons per day, and when the Plant is in operation, an average daily amount of waste of 90 tons per day is incinerated," announced the company Eco-Elb that manages the incinerator.

Green energy, a dream in the drawer

The government promised that when the Elbasan incinerator was put into operation, about 17,250 MWh of energy would be produced per year from waste processing. But the data provided by Faktoje show that the amount of energy produced by the Elbasan incinerator in these years is far from the public promise.

'They replaced recycling with the lie of energy production. So the funds are taken, but the work is not done, causing multiple damage, both financial and environmental," says environmental expert Ahmet Mehmeti.

The Energy Regulatory Authority informs Faktoje that last year the urban waste processing plant in Elbasan did not produce electricity.

From the reports of OSSH sha and FTL sha/ OSHEE Group sha so far in ERE, it results that the Elbasan district urban waste processing center of the company 'ECO-ELB' sh.a for 2023 shows that it did not produce energy electricity in the electricity distribution network.', states ERE.

While during 2022, the incinerator produced 6,792 MWh of electricity, an amount that does not match what the Eco-Elb company that manages the incinerator declares.

"The amount of energy produced throughout the year 2022 is 75.9 MWh," Eco-Elb told Faktoje.

Turning off the incinerator increases the mountain of garbage in Elbasan

Coexistence with the incinerator...

Dozens of families live near the waste processing plant in Elbasan. Talking to some of them is difficult. They are worried but at the same time afraid to share their daily problems with the media.

"As it turns on, as it turns off, for us the situation is not worse. In the summer, we close the windows because the smell of garbage becomes unbearable,' says a resident of the area, as she points to the mountain of garbage in front of the house.

The only one who agreed to speak was the chief of the area. We met Jashar Muchi while he was working the land in front of the house. The pensioner tells us that coexistence with the incinerator becomes difficult when the plant is out of order.

'When the plant is on, we don't have any problems, it's clean. But now it's out of order and see for yourself.', he says as our conversation is interrupted by a car with waste that was going to the landfill.

'Do you see this car passing by?! Garbage trucks don't stop here, day and night. They come from the whole region,' Muçi continues.

Jashari remembers well the government's promises when work on the plant started.

"Employment in the area would increase, we would get rid of garbage, energy would be produced from which we would heat ourselves and make greenhouses... how many things would be done if we didn't see them...", he said at the end of the conversation./ Faktoje