Municipal solid waste management system in Tirana, Albania : potential for waste separation at source

Most of waste management problems haveto do with something different than money and equipment. Some problems have to do with the attitude and behaviour of citizens, waste management staff, private enterprises and waste pickers. Other problems are caused or become more seriousby factors that are not technical or financial, but are related to the institutional framework, the environment, and the social or cultural context. In these cases, it is not money or equipment that provide solutions, but the change of social, institutional, legal, or political conditions. The Integrated Sustainable Waste Management (ISWM) has been developed from the above experience in order to assist with plans for improvement-encountered problems in municipal waste management in a given location, a city in most cases. The concept of ISWM is used in this research as an assessment/analysis tool for three dimensions of the waste cycles: stakeholders, system elements and aspects in Tirana city. Source separation of waste on household level as an integral part of one of ISWM's dimensions system elements, is evaluated in three different neighbourhoods of Tirana city. Based on these results an action plan in the short and long terms for the future was build