As part of the “Solid Waste Management Project South-East Albania Accompanying Measures Phase II” project supported by KfW Entwicklungsbank, IU is assisting the regional waste management company KRWM (Korçë Regional Waste Management), in which all six municipalities in the region are shareholders, with the operation of the sanitary landfill and transfer stations. As a training measure, a study trip to Germany was carried out in September 2022, which was attended by the management staff of KRWM, the deputy mayor of the municipality of Korçë and members of the KRWM supervisory board.

The participants were introduced to a number of different actors in municipal and regional waste management in the Rhine-Main area by IU within one week. On Tuesday, after a joint boat trip, the group visited a waste management centre with mechanical-biological waste treatment and its transfer station for compost, soil excavations and construction waste. On Wednesday, the programme continued with guided tours of a sorting plant for light packaging and a company that handles, among other things, construction and demolition waste recycling and demolition work. On Thursday, the group visited a closed landfill site developed with photovoltaic systems and a recycling centre for waste electrical and electronic equipment. The study tour continued on Friday with guided tours of a waste-to-energy plant and a waste management centre with an in-operation landfill. Finally, on Saturday, the group visited the Environment and Family Day of the Eigenbetriebe für kommunale Aufgaben und Dienstleistungen in Darmstadt. Cultural visits to the cities and a guided tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt rounded off the programme. With many new impressions for waste management in Korçë, the group set off back to Albania.