Bajrie Istrefaj
According to INSTAT, from 2020 to 2025, over 7,600 building permits were approved in Albania, while the total area of new construction exceeded 13 million square meters.
In 2025 alone, 1,158 building permits were issued, compared to 970 in 2024 and 1,336 in 2023, while the construction area reached over 1.3 million m². Of the total permits issued in 2025, 93 permits were issued in Tirana alone; in other words, 1 in 3 building permits went to the capital.
Behind this construction boom lies another reality: millions of tons of inert waste are produced every year, without a functional system for its treatment, recycling or disposal. In the absence of control and the necessary infrastructure, rivers, urban suburbs and green spaces are gradually turning into informal dumping grounds for the construction fever.
Dhimitër Papa, a civil engineer and designer, according to a simple calculation, says that just from the construction of a 10-story building with an area of 2,000 square meters, about 37,000 tons of inert material or 1,020 trucks are generated.
Where are these large quantities going? How much space is available for their storage?
Illegal landfills
ACQJ approached the Municipality of Tirana about official landfills for inert waste. The latter stated that there are currently no landfills or other places for the disposal of inert waste, with the exception of the Sharra Landfill, where all types of waste are deposited.
We asked the same question to the Ministry of Tourism and Environment. In its response, it said that there are temporary sites for the disposal of inert waste. However, despite being classified as temporary, their operation has exceeded the 180-day deadline stipulated in the latest decision of 2025 on the management of inert waste.
Urban planner Dorjana Musai says that the lack of monitoring and control is the main cause of exceeding legal deadlines for temporary landfills.
But is this the only problem in managing inert waste?
From the field observations, illegal disposal areas have been identified, where inerts are dumped freely and massively, in peripheral areas of the Combine, around the Tërkuza River in Zall Herr, near the Farka Lake dam and in many other areas, where the deposits are in smaller volumes.
The Erzen River is not spared either, where the inerts have visibly changed its course. It is noted that some of the inerts are hidden under the grass.
Under these circumstances, we reached out to the Municipality of Tirana and the Ministry of Tourism and Environment for an official response to the situation. As of the time of publication of this article, the authorities have chosen not to respond.
Selection and overload
According to data from the National Waste Management Agency (AKEM) for 2025, out of 23 municipalities that have landfills, no amount of waste was reported in 7 of them.
AKEM explains that there is little construction in these areas and, consequently, little inert waste. For this reason, they are disposed of and measured together with urban waste.
But European Union directives require that waste be separated by type, especially construction waste, with the aim of 70% of it being recycled.
In Albania, the decision on inert waste management, adopted in 2025, has brought changes in the way they are classified, which is also reflected in the field.
For example, in the Municipality of Fushë-Arrëz and in the administrative unit of Qafë Mali, inert waste is deposited in the same place as urban waste, in the area called “Kthesa e Krrabit”, about 3 kilometers from the city.
The same situation occurs in the village of Qafë Barak, near Has, where inert waste is mixed with urban waste.
Environmental consequences
Besjana Guri, activist and leader of the environmental organization "Lumi", says that mixing inert waste with other waste has greater consequences than they seem at first glance.
It lists a number of problems, such as damage to the riverbed, blockage of fish migration routes, water pollution and, consequently, the extinction of many aquatic species.
"In the event of rainfall, the river follows its natural course and inert materials are dispersed, ending up blocking the canals," explains Guri.
The most recent case is in Durrës, where debris from the demolition of surrounding walls and unauthorized buildings contributed to the blockage of drainage channels, causing flooding after rainfall in the New Durrës area and the beach.
However, for Guri, the problem does not end here.
"It happens that this waste gets mixed with hazardous substances or ends up damaging water sources," she emphasizes.
During 2024–2025, Porto Romano's urban waste was diverted to the Sharra Landfill, which according to media reports contributed to the overloading of the latter, which is also used by several other municipalities besides Tirana.
In parallel, hazardous industrial waste has been identified in Porto Romano, for which there is a lack of transparency regarding treatment and final destination.
This raises a serious question: in an already overloaded system, is there a risk that uncontrolled flows of waste, including inert from construction activity, will be deposited in Sharra or elsewhere?
According to Guri, there is a lack of dedicated studies on inert materials that show the consequences and the time needed to recover the affected areas.
"Especially when illegally deposited, there is no way to measure the environmental damage that inert waste causes," she adds.
Guri questions the existence of rehabilitation plans for temporary landfills after the removal of inert waste.
Reuse and costs
Another element of the 2025 decision "On the approval of requirements for the management of inert waste" is the reuse of this waste if it is appropriate.
But how feasible is this process on the ground?
Besjana Guri says that mixing them makes the inerts unusable and, consequently, creates increased stock in environmental spaces.
The same thing is confirmed by Dhimitër Papa, implementing and design engineer.
He considers reuse economically unreasonable, arguing that the process requires additional labor and costs.
"The cost of processing and reusing them is so high that it's better to buy new ones, because it requires additional manpower, sorting by category, and identifying materials that can be reused," explains Papa.
But Altin Seranaj, also a civil engineer, has another assessment.
He sees the reuse of inert waste as a cost-saving alternative and as a solution to avoid landfill costs.
Seranaj explains that the process of fully disposing of the inert waste has four phases:
"The phase of separation, processing, transportation to the designated location and, finally, storage," he explains.
Based on data from the European Construction Cost Database (CYPE), World Bank reports and landfill tariffs published by the European Environment Agency, the average relative costs for each phase result as follows:
| STAGES OF THE DEPOSIT PROCESS | RELATIVE COSTS |
|---|
| Generation / division | €1–3 / m³ |
| Processing | €3–8 / m³ |
| Transportation | 6.3 € / m³ |
| deposition | €5–10 / m³ |
| TOTAL | €15–27 / m³ |
For a building with an area of 2,000 square meters, the total costs of the inert waste disposal process range from 30 thousand to 54 thousand euros.
But construction companies often choose the cheapest route. To avoid paying these fees and wasting time on reprocessing, they deposit inert waste in illegal locations.
Engineer Seranaj says that the construction sector in Albania lacks a recycling culture.
"Or, more precisely, this issue remains outside the attention of the sector," he adds.
In this climate of lawlessness, how many measures have been taken over the last three years regarding illegal dumping of inert materials?
Data specifically related to inert waste are partial.
According to the Tirana Municipality Police, in 2024, 54 measures were imposed on heavy vehicles, including cases where they illegally dumped or transported inert materials.
For 2025, there are no separate figures for inerts; they are included within the general measures for environmental pollution.
In 2026 (January–March), 19 cases were recorded, mainly for trucks that dumped inert materials or caused pollution from construction sites.
Engineer Seranaj highlights the lack of a proper infrastructure system for the reuse of inert waste.
For this reason, we approached the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy with a request for comment regarding this situation. The response was silence.
Meanwhile, according to INSTAT, construction permits issued for the third quarter of 2025 alone amount to an area of 350,603 m², while for the first quarter of 2026, 322 construction permits for new buildings were approved, or 24.8% more than in the same period of 2025.
The total area foreseen for construction reached 377,061 m², marking an increase of 12.5% compared to the previous year.
The majority of this construction is concentrated in Tirana, where rivers and natural spaces in the capital's outskirts continue to face severe environmental degradation. The phenomenon is fueled by a combination of unstoppable construction pressure, a lack of effective control, and inaction by responsible institutions.acqj.al
