The municipality of Cërrik is home to around 48,000 inhabitants and is predominantly characterised by agriculture. Around 50 per cent of the city's waste is therefore green cuttings and organic waste. In order to utilise this waste and save the high costs of incineration, the construction of a composting plant was a high priority. With technical support from the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Albania's first composting plant was completed in May 2021. It has a maximum processing capacity of 600 tonnes of biowaste per year and employs five people. The quality of the compost has proven to be very good and is already being sold to local farmers. The compost increases the fertility and water retention capacity of the soil and prevents the uncontrolled rotting of green waste, which releases methane, a gas that is very harmful to the climate. So far, the plant is only operating at half capacity with 300 tonnes per year. The next stage is to reach full capacity utilisation. This is to be achieved by expanding the waste collection points from 24 to 61 and purchasing another larger tipper lorry and mobile shredders. In addition, a modern compressed air process is to halve the composting time from twelve to six weeks. By establishing a brand name for the compost, the plant should be self-financing in the medium term. Entsorgungsbetriebe Lübeck has been providing advice for three years and is currently helping to increase the efficiency of the treatment technology and further refine the compost.

EcoService2022 is a municipal waste association consisting of four Ukrainian municipalities in the Lubenskyi district in the Poltava oblast. On 15 November 2022, the mayors of the municipalities of Hrebinka, Novoorzhyzke, Pyryatyn and Chornuchy signed an agreement to establish this joint municipal company to develop a waste management system. In the midst of the war, EcoService2022 began operations in May 2023. The necessary equipment was purchased in Germany and Ukraine and provided by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment as part of the "Environmental Protection Export Initiative", including a mobile sorting plant, a waste collection vehicle, a loader, a baler, around 500 containers and other tools and instruments. In the initial phase of its activities, EcoService2022 serves the 22 settlements of the four municipalities with a total population of around 70,000 inhabitants. The focus is on the introduction of separate waste collection and the development and management of a landfill site for household waste. Since September 2023, the Bergische Abfallwirtschaftsverband has been advising EcoService2022 as part of an operator partnership. As travelling to Ukraine is not possible due to the war, the focus of the collaboration in the first half of 2024 is on virtual exchange formats for EcoService2022 employees. As the first special purpose waste association, EcoService2022 has the potential to become an exemplary pilot project for inter-municipal cooperation in the waste sector for Ukraine with a successful concept.

In less than six months, we have managed to process a mountain of waste the size of a five-storey house instead of sending it to landfill. The company has also started to generate its own money. The partnership has helped us a lot: Firstly through the technology, and secondly by sharing experiences. That is the most important thing.
Mykhailo Melnychenko, Deputy Mayor of Pyriatyn, Ukraine

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Further information and all presentations of the session can be found in the documentation of the 7th network meeting of the operator platform.