Week 14-16 (June 26-July 16, 2004)
I’m on a bus waiting for people to fill it up so we can leave. There is no bus schedule. I see Albanians, of all ages, finish their snack or soda, stand up, open the window, and throw their trash on the ground.
“Ta-dah” the trash magically disappears. The sight of excessive littering and total disregard for the environment still makes me cringe. At the same time, I hear people complaining about how “dirty” the place is. I had to make my own garbage from plastic bags that are excessively given at little stores because I couldn’t find one in the house.
It made me wonder, “Where does the trash go?”
Back in Lezhe, the town of my temporary home for three months during training, I did actually spot a garbage truck one time. There were small community bins that had overflowing trash 5 feet around the bin.
In the village, there is no garbage disposal. They burn their trash. The smell is as distinctive as burning hair. You can smell it for miles and try to keep yourself from getting nauseous.
It makes me think twice before I put items in my self-made trash. “Could this be used somewhere else? Do I really need to throw this away?”
The gray stream of smoke fills the air and can be seen for kilometers around the neighborhood.
When I threw stuff away in America, I never thought much about it. It will be dumped or taken away. I will never think of it again.
In Albania, to burn trash, people pick through it. You can tell a lot about a person by going through their trash. I am reminded yet again that privacy doesn’t exist much.
UPDATE: The first incineration plant in Albania commenced operation in 2019; the incineration data for 2013-2018 are related to the illegal burning of waste at landfills. More specifically on landfilling, it is estimated that only 40 % of the landfilled waste is disposed of at legal landfills (Albanian Environment Agency, 2021)
20-Year Reflection: When I smell burning plastic releasing toxins in the air, I think of Albania.
My Journey to a Fulfilled Life 