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Group 3:
Besart Alshiqi
Behar Mustafa
Egzon Shkuliqi
Flutra Xhemshiti
Leotrim Krasniqi
Trash Management in Kosovo
1.0. Introduction
Every day we consume and use products, items, materials, etc. of different nature, composition, and type. We buy a can of coke, and as soon as we finish it, that can of coke that minutes ago was a final product now becomes a trash or waste, of aluminum composition that has to be thrown somewhere, and someone has to take care of it. And imagine the number of consumer products that exist all over the world, the quantities in which they are produced, the quantities they are consumed, and the vast and different combination of compositions of materials they represent. And imagine what a great and hard job it requires to handle all this trash/waste being created every day, all over the world. It is enough to take only the consumer products as an example to understand the importance of trash/waste management, and the volume of activities that this issue necessitates. Besides this everyday process of the creation of simple trash/waste such as a can of coke, there are activities, processes, factories, institutions that create far more complex, more dangerous, and more quantities of trash/waste. Imagine the factory that produces those cans to be filled with coke, or the factory that produces the plastic for the any kind of product that we use every day, or the energy plant and the mines, they create not trash/waste in larger quantities, but also trash/waste that is more dangerous, more expensive and more complex to manage.
1.1.Trash/Waste Definition
There are different definitions of what trash/waste is, but we will bring two definitions that provide, we believe, a clear enough explanation of what can be considered as trash/waste. The first definition is brought by the Basel convention, and defines trash/waste as “substances or objects which are disposed or are intended to be disposed or are required to be disposed of by the provisions of national laws” (GRIDA). Another definition of trash/waste is the definition of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), which defines trash/waste as “materials that are not prime products (that is products produced for the market) for which the generator has no further use in terms of his/her own purposes of production, transformation or consumption, and of which he/she wants to dispose. Wastes may be generated during the extraction of raw materials, the processing of raw materials into intermediate and final products, the consumption of final products, and other human activities. Residuals recycled or reused at the place of generation are excluded” (GRIDA).
1.2. Trash/Waste Division
There are several factors or criteria by which waste is divided. OECD provides a three category division and definition of trash/waste. The first category, which is the lowest in danger of environmental implication, is municipal waste. The second category is hazardous waste, which has higher potentials and risks for environmental damages. The third category is nuclear waste, which is the most damaging to the environment. In following we will bring the definitions for these three categories, as specified by OECD:
“Municipal waste is collected and treated by, or for municipalities. It covers waste from households, including bulky waste, similar waste from commerce and trade, office buildings, institutions and small businesses, yard and garden, street sweepings, contents of litter containers, and market cleansing. Waste from municipal sewage networks and treatment, as well as municipal construction and demolition is excluded.
Hazardous waste is mostly generated by industrial activities and driven by specific patterns of production. It represents a major concern as it entails serious environmental risks if poorly managed: the impact on the environment relates mainly to toxic contamination of soil, water and air.
Nuclear (radioactive) waste is generated at various stages of the nuclear fuel cycle (uranium mining and milling, fuel enrichment, reactor operation, spent fuel reprocessing). It also arises from decontamination and decommissioning of nuclear facilities, and from other activities using isotopes, such as scientific research and medical activities” (GRIDA).
Another division of trash/waste is based on the different approaches that we use to define trash/waste. It is divided based on the origin, or what process or activity from people generated that waste. It is divided based on composition, in the sense of what the trash/waste contains. Another group of trash/waste is formed based on toxicity, meaning the dangers and risks it represents for humans and the environment. And the last group is composed based on management, where as criteria for this group is the way in which the trash/waste is managed and who manages with that trash/waste. Below is a graphical representation of the above division explanation.
Source: GRIDA
Even though four groups of trash/waste are formed using the four above mentioned criteria, which were origin, composition, toxicity, and management, there are intersection between the four groups. For example, wood preservatives can be grouped based on origin, based on composition, and based on toxicity. The following is a visual representation of this overlapping between groups and it can be clearly seen and understood how one trash/waste material can be part of even the four groups. 
Source: GRIDA
2.0. Trash Management
3.0. Trash Management in Kosovo
Trash management has been an issue which has raised concerns in Kosova because of the inability of institutions to deal properly with this problem. However, there have been significant changes in the past years on trash management and now, with the request of international organizations such as UNDP, Kosova is trying to reach the criteria which is demanded by international laws.
Plastic trash has been among the biggest concerns for analysts. In the rural zones this has caused major environmental damages because of its burning in open space, and this has released toxic gases. With this fact being a concern for the UNDP environmentalists in coordination with nongovernment organizations, and two ministries they held a meeting on 27 September 2011, and agreed to start the process of recycling. In schools and universities would be the collection points for this project. This agreement will result on mutual interest for schools, which will generate incomes in one hand, and companies which will increase the amount of trash which will be processed. Another benefit from this agreement will be the reduction of trash which is absorbed by earth, and the decrease of plastic items that are often noticed by people especially in rural zones. One of the most important outcomes from this initiative has been the raise of awareness of people on how to deal with trash because prior to this event people were not aware with the damages that trash causes.
The initiation of Cap Project in Kosova is a great contributor to the management of plastic trash which has turned into a true revolutionary initiative. The majority of schools and institutions in Kosova are collecting plastic caps and turning these caps into wheelchairs for people in need. Kosova is among 41 countries in world that are currently running this process.
4.0. Cross country comparison
Macedonia
One of the largest producers of trash/waste in Balkan is Macedonia every year they produce “around 700.000 tones of waste” (Lutovska, K. )based on their low budget it is very difficult to manage all this tones of waste for one year. The problem that this state is dealing with is that the trash/waste is not done in the right way, so a higher percentage of waste is tossed into illegal fields or just left open fields, which can let lots of dangerous toxins to leak into the ground water. Macedonia has taken an important action to clean up their state in 2012 which was called “The clean up Macedonia 2012 project”(Lutovska, K. ). This campaign was organized by the NGOs of the state, part of this campaign were a higher percentage of citizens. Macedonia has taken some important steps to eliminate illegal management of trash/waste with help of other EU countries. Some states like: Italy and Austria were interested to help the state of Macedonia, for example an Italian company has build a plant for incineration the medical waste, which is thought to be one of the largest landfills in the Balkan. Another company from Austria will build a regional landfill to help some of the municipalities to manage their waste. If we talk about Serbia they have a same problem of managing trash/waste.
Serbia
Serbia has lots of illegal dumps, which is one of the biggest problems for their government because it is bringing lot of waste in money to them, to repair or to bring those fields into the regular situation that have been damaged from illegal trash dumpers. The European Union has spent some millions of dollars to implement a project that will help the Ministry of Health in Seriba to manage their medical waste. This action was taken because the EU was very concerned with high amount of medical waste that is present in Serbia, which achieved approximately ten tones per day. By implementing this project the Ministry of Health are very happy and they hope that from now on they will have easier ways to manage their medical waste.
Montenegro
However, Montenegro is dealing with the same problem too, based on some statistics they concluded that only half of their trash/waste is dumped in legal landfills. The biggest problem for this country is that they do not have waste recycling facility yet, which means that it is a big problem to reuse the trash/waste which is produced every day. “According to official government data total annual waste in Montenegro is around 193, 148 tons; half of which only 96,574 tons is collected. The rest end up in the environment” (Lutovska, K.). Some of the experts that have come from EU countries conclude that the biggest enemy in nowadays for citizens of Montenegro is “black spots”. (Lutovska, K.) These spots can bring many diseases for the people who live in the areas that possess “black spots”. Some of the NGO’s told SEtimes that “Montenegro made no progress in the 20 years since its authorities signed that proclamation declaring Montenegro an ecological state. He says authorities must give up this orientation or begin to apply the law.”(Lutovska, K.). By this we can understand that citizens of Montenegro will not have a fresh air since they do not stop putting different kind of trash/waste in illegal areas. However, government should take actions to apply the law and to prepare some penalties for those who tossed they trash/waste in illegal areas if they want to be part of EU. On the other hand citizens are very afraid that those trashes that are not recycled or managed in the right way will bring some diseases that can be very harmful.
Albania
In Albania they have “852.360 tons of trashes for one year, with an average 0,7 kg per person for each day”. Processing and recycling of waste is very little practiced in Albania, there are approximately 60 companies that deal with recycling of trash/waste. There are some legal landfills where the ministry of environment tossed trashes. The budget for the management of these wastes is provided by clearing fees levied by municipal councils. The strategy of Ministry of Environment for the future is to close some of the actual landfills and to open some new ones based on the BE criteria’s. In recent years in Albania has caused in increase in urban and construction waste. Moreover, solid waste has increased in 2009, in the (Figure. 1) 
Source: European Environmental Agency.( Lutovska, K.)
are presented some statistics showing that how solid waste has increased from 2005 till 2009.
On the other hand, Construction and Demolition waste are decreasing every year as we can see in the Figure 2. 
Source: European Environmental Agency.
However, something positive is happening in Albania because they start implementing a plan for waste management which is called “National Waste Plan 2010 -25”( Lutovska, K.) . In the table below are presented the landfills in Albania. 
Source: European Environmental Agency
Here in the table we can see that there are not enough landfills to manage waste/trash. And by implementing this plan of INPEAL it will bring other new landfills to manage the waste.Albanian Government are very interested and they have organized lots of campaigns to clean up their trash/waste, but they still have lots of issues that have to deal with.
All these countries below have presented their problems of managing trash/waste in front of EU organization that deal with this issue. However, the states of Balkan are very far from US countries, but they hope that in the nearest future they will be able to manage their trash/waste in the way that will be positive and secured for their own citizens. Because, by recycling or reusing the trashes one state can have a lots of benefits first of all it will be a better place to live with less of trashes and second the government will have an economic growth. Having an economic growth it means that they will have more budgets to build new landfills where they can manage their everyday trashes.
5.0. Environmental issues arising from the problem of trash/waste
As we know trash is something that has no value. We, as humans, are the cause for unnecessary trash. As our technology develops, so does our demands for different materials. With more different materials, we are introduced to more trash, and the more sophisticated the technology and the products, we are guaranteed with more trash. Trash is usually created during the processing and transformation of materials and energy forms. Trash can cause damage to the health and lives of people by creating incentives disease. The smell and appearance affect not only the earth but also in the general environment, in the air and water. The average amount of waste per capital human within a year is obtained when taking the overall amount of waste in cubic meter for the total number of residents.
According to the composition of municipal waste is found that 35-45% is organic waste. From this is recommended composing and organic waste process is much easier and can bring multiple benefits. In Kosovo, there is no special landfill for hazardous waste. A portion of hazardous waste is disposed in regional landfills. Illegal dumps are a problem in itself, they are currently outside the regular management control and inconsistent with environmental protection standards.
As the biggest polluters are estimated to be mercury, cadmium, substances whose composition found arsenic and various alloys difficult biological dissolved organic (e.g. dissolution of organic links with large amounts of chlorine) or substances that can cause cancer (e.g., flammable substances that are based gasoline) as and problematic waste (e.g. household waste of hospitals). The areas with a greater concentration of waste and other dangerous materials are mainly those zones that once used to have a great development of industry. A greater concentration of pollution we have in Mitrovica (Trepça) and Obiliq (KEK), without denying other places such as Feronikeli, IBG in Gjilan, Zastava in Peja, etc.
Problem in itself represent waste produced every day and not treated adequately, posing a constant threat to the society, such as:
- Used oils, especially those containing PCB, PCT and PBB
- Batteries, accumulators
- Hospital waste, infectious animal expired drugs
- Packaging of dangerous substances
- Rubber and Plastic Waste
- Electrical and electronic waste
- Expired Pesticides etc…
In Kosovo there are around 35 enterprises involved in waste handling easily recyclable, such as: Paper, metal, drums, cans, organic waste, Rubber, Plastics etc… Without raising serious companies, recycling is difficult to create a structure proper way to manage the trash. Given the scale of the human tragedy caused by war in Kosovo, an unprecedented number of patients with varying traumas were taken to medical facilities and to temporary hospitals. Among the concerns for environmental experts was the lack of suitable facilities for the management of healthcare waste in our hospitals.
The ineffective waste management presents the transformation of the trash into hazardous waste. In the territory of Kosovo there are remaining’s of hazardous materials in the industrial buildings, which were intended as raw material for production, but unfortunately most cases have become waste without using a long time. Packaging and storage is in poor condition. With their corrode actions, destroyed equipment or packages, so these substances, constantly threaten ecological catastrophe. Waste is a very complex and heterogeneous material formed during every day human activities, in work, housing, public area, schools, industries, shops and other activities. Trash reduction means more efficient use of natural resources reduction of unnecessary products and planned meaning less loss of power.
From what was elaborated above, we can conclude that in Kosovo there is still no proper and efficient treatment of waste. There is no proper legal infrastructure and management; there is a lack of awareness on the part of citizens and institutions, generating large quantities of ash into the KEK and its inadequate treatment; import great packaging and other products that become more rapid rubbish, lack of investment in the recycling of many other problems that must find solution. This situation is replicated in many other parts of the country, where pipes and valleys appear to be the preferred means of disposal for trash. This may be partly because of the easiness with which waste can be tilted into these areas from high areas, and partly because it gets washed off every winter. Regardless, this activity is causing both unsightly sights and environmental contamination. From this it is suggested that waste treatment is a necessary process to achieve gradual reduction of the amount of waste at its source before disposal, exploitation energy, reusing and recycling, gradual reduction of risk to health and environment in general.
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