Second Environmental Performance Review of Albania

Chapter 7: Waste management105several ministries and weak central authority.MoPWTT is responsible for bulky and voluminouswaste management, MoETE for industrial andmining waste management, the Ministry of Defencefor military waste management, MoAFCP foragricultural and stockbreeding waste management,MoH for medical waste management and thetransboundary movement of waste.Ministry of Environment, Forests and WaterAdministrationMoEFWA is the main institution on waste policy andmanagement. It is responsible for strategyformulation, legislative drafting, project preparation,central inspection and enforcement. With its regionalagencies and EI, it is responsible for setting up asystem of environmental management of waste andmonitoring its implementation at all stages andlevels.The Ministry also issues waste permits (and changesor suspends them), export and transit permits forshipment of waste, and hazardous waste exportpermits, and drafts the waste import permit which isto be approved by the Council of Ministers.The institutional capacity of waste management isnot sufficient. The Directorate of EnvironmentProtection has seven experts, only one of whom isdirectly responsible for waste management.The EFA has a waste management sector, focusingon data collection and management, and has under itsjurisdiction the register of permits. It is also involvedin the approval of waste disposal sites and issuing (incooperation with local government authorities) ofenvironmental permits for local waste facilities.Other ministriesOther ministries, central institutions and localgovernment bodies, in coordination with MoEFWA,have the following duties: design methodologies forthe environmental treatment of waste in accordancewith the type and nature of waste; monitor andcontrol waste-generating activities; and controlagents engaged in transportation, recycling,processing and disposal of waste in the area undertheir jurisdiction.MoPWTT is the contracting authority for concessionsfor economic activities for which it hasresponsibility. This also covers public services,including municipal waste management concessions.MoPWTT organizes tenders for concessions,negotiates the conditions of concession and, undercertain circumstances, may also terminate aconcession agreement. The Concession Unitidentifies potential concessions and estimates theircost-effectiveness and financial appropriateness, andrecommends them for approval.The Construction Police, subordinated to MoPWTT,is responsible for controls and inspections of theregulation on construction and demolition of (inert)waste, together with other inspectorates, includingEI. The Sanitary Inspectorate of the National Councilof Territorial Adjustment approves site permits andconstruction permits for any objects, including forlandfills larger than 0.5 ha.MoETE has established a unit dealing withconcessions, which is in charge of promoting andassisting the contracting authority for concessionevaluation and negotiations. This also includesconcessions on collection, transport, processing andmanagement of solid waste.The MoH’s State Sanitary Inspectorate cooperateswith EI, and occasionally with other inspectorates, tocarry out inspections of waste-related activities. It isalso involved in the approval of waste collectionsites.The institutions responsible for nuclear safety andprotection from radiation are MoH, the InterinstitutionalCommittee for Protection fromRadiation (ICPR), the Academy of Sciences (Institutefor Nuclear Physics) and MoEFWA.MunicipalitiesLocal governments are responsible for organizingmunicipal waste management and contractingcollection, and city cleaning companies. They alsodraft and approve local regulations on wastemanagement following guidelines prepared byMoEFWA and MoH.City cleaning companies are required to:• Separate waste at the source of its generation;properly collect, store and treat waste accordingto type; establish facilities and plants for wasterecycling and processing; and designprogrammes of technical, technological andorganizational steps for waste management; theyare obliged to carry out their activities whileposing no risk to human health, water, air, soil,plants and animals, and with no additional noiseor smell and no irreversible damage to nature;