Tirana's incinerator will "burn" another 30 million euros by 2028

2025-11-13 07:19:00, Ekonomi CNA

The Albanian government will finance the concession contract with Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for the construction of the Tirana ghost incinerator with an additional 30 million euros for the period 2026-2028, according to official data in the 2026 draft budget.

Even though the plant is not being built, the government continues to make payments with high accuracy, from all other public investment contracts.

These payments come at a time when no investment has been made for the plant, while the capital's waste continues to be deposited in the existing Sharra landfill.

The Ministry of Finance previously justified the continuation of funding with the need to respect contractual obligations and avoid penalties, acknowledging the weaknesses of the contract where funds are disbursed without works quotas. This is despite the fact that the organic budget law and a series of instructions do not allow budget payments without a works situation.

Until October 22, 2025, the budget has provided over 8.9 billion lek or over 90 million euros for the construction of the non-existent facility, according to data from Open Data Albania.

Meanwhile, the Municipality of Tirana includes significant amounts in its annual budget planning for cleaning services and waste management, while the incinerator contract is expected to also include the incineration phase with energy production, a phase that has not yet started and has so far only burned public funds.

The Albanian Government in 2016-2017 planned the construction of 3 incinerators in Elbasan with a capacity of 140 tons/day, in Fier with a capacity of 200 tons/day and in Tirana with a capacity of 920 tons/day.

The incinerators in Elbasan and Fier were financed through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme, and are now out of operation after the corrupt contracts, proven by SPAK investigations, turned out to be completely corrupt.

The contract for the incinerator designed in Tirana is active and is financed through a 30-year concession worth 128 million Euros, an amount that is fully allocated until 2028 and so far more than 70% of the funds have been provided.

The government programmed that the capacity of the three incinerators together is 43% of the total waste generated in the entire country, but now their malfunction has plunged the country into an environmental emergency and without a clear vision that it will continue, while next year the waste generated in Përrenjas, Librazhd, Elbasan, Fier, Lushnje, etc. will be deposited in Shkodër.

This method will create high transportation costs, as the existing road connecting Shkodra to the rest of the country is always very busy. The government has planned to use Shkodra to deposit the waste of half of Albania, at a time when landfill space near large cities has not been exhausted./ Monitor