Big Waste: Costs of Garbage Disposal in Durres Pile Up

The session was held online due to COVID-19 limitations and ended with a decision to ask the central government to finance the building of a transfer station and a subsidy to cover the invoice of the privately operated Tirana Landfill at Sharra for the waste of Durres.

The council said it chose this solution after studying three proposals, all put forward by the National Agency for Water Supply, Waste Water and Waste Infrastructure, known by its acronym AKUM.

"The garbage you see in the town these days is not due to our negligence," the acting Mayor of Durres, Emiriana Sako, told the council.

"We have limited means. The Sharra Landfill has accepted our garbage for more than one year now, without any contract or payment, and this is a delicate issue which I am happy is going towards a legal solution," she added.

The 38-year-old architect has led the second largest city in Albania as acting mayor since April 2020. She has good reason to feel relieved.

From more than a year, she and other officials have been under pressure to reach an agreement with Sharra Landfill by the most powerful person in the country, Prime Minister Edi Rama.

However, the high cost of depositing waste in Sharra and the fact that the municipality doesn't have the money to pay for this solution, has raised questions among experts about good governance.

According to them, incinerating waste in Albania has become a monopoly behind which stand the corrupt interests of those high up in power.

"Urban waste management is going down the road of many industries in the country - mismanagement for the creation of false emergencies to justify direct contracting for the undeserved benefit of private operators," says Zef Preci, director of the Albania...