Document [original]

Vol.:(0123456789)

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Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management (2023) 25:1191–1203

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-022-01577-5

REGIONAL CASE STUDY

Construction anddemolition waste management inKosovo: asurvey

ofchallenges andopportunities ontheroad tocircular economy

MartinAlite1 · HebaAbu‑Omar1· MariaTeresaAgurcia2· MyriamJácome3· JolinaKenney1· AndreaTapia1·

MaartenSiebel4

Received: 6 December 2021 / Accepted: 11 December 2022 / Published online: 17 January 2023

Abstract

Managing Construction and demolition waste (CDW) is a severe and growing urban challenge, particularly in post-conflict

countries. Though Kosovo has significantly rebuilt and developed after the Liberation War, these initiatives have accompanied

suboptimal waste management. This research evaluates CDW management in Kosovo by assessing current practices and

operations vis-a-vis the legal framework and EU requirements. It identifies instruments and policies capable of ameliorating

gaps and proposes a more sustainable and circular CDW management system for Kosovo. Information was primarily col-

lected during on-site visits to Pristina and the surroundings by a cohort of Urban Management Students from the Technische

Universität Berlin, students from Kosovo, and the local office of the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, GIZ.

The analysis identified gaps in Kosovo's CDW management and its observance and enforcement of existing CDW legislation,

including an ambiguous licensing system impeding sustainable demolition, storage, and transport; the absence of approved

CDW storage options leading to uncontrolled disposal; and an underdeveloped market for recycling and reuse, deterring

stakeholders from further pursuit of circular practices. These gaps were compounded by poor recordkeeping, obscuring

precise information on CDW streams. Possible instruments and incentives to support Kosovo's transition to a more sustain-

able CDW management system were then identified.

Keywords Construction and demolition waste (CDW)· Waste management· Recycling and reuse· Kosovo· Circular

economy

Introduction

Modern cities face many challenges in meeting the needs

of growing populations with increasingly limited resources

and fragile environments. Key among these is addressing the

rapidly increasing waste flows produced by citizens, busi-

nesses, and the very infrastructure of cities, including nota-

bly, those arising from construction activities.

In the case of Kosovo, a Balkan country “in transition”

[22], construction and demolition waste (CDW) manage-

ment is crucial to the formation of a national, sustainable

waste management strategy due to the unique problems it

presents. Uniquely, some 70,000 homes of Kosovo's build-

ing stock were destroyed during the conflict [19], produc-

ing vast quantities of demolition debris and making CDW

management an urgent issue. Though precise amounts of

CDW generated in Kosovo are not known, it is estimated

that roughly 170,000 metric tons of CDW is generated per

year, and as of 2017, 1572 dumpsites exist in the country

holding some 140,000 m3 of CDW [23]. Though no offi-

cial figures are kept, it was estimated by a previous study,

co-authored in part by the authors, that the total amount of

CDW in Kosovo in 2019 was 583,200 tons [22]. While CDW

is not particularly difficult to recycle for many more mod-

ernized countries, Kosovo, due to its unique economic and

political history, has both an abundance of CDW and has not

yet shown itself capable of dealing with this particular set of

* Martin Alite

mar[email protected]

1 Technische Universitat Berlin, Urban Management Program,

Hardenbergstraße 16-18, 10623Berlin, Germany

2 Grupo Terra, Res. Las Cumbres, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

3 Pontifical Catholic University ofEcuador, Av. 12 de Octubre

and Vicente Ramón Roca Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador

4 Enviro-Educa, Capacity Building forResource Management,

Hölderlinstraße 6, 14050Berlin, Germany

1192 Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management (2023) 25:1191–1203

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waste fractions. Moreover, due to its rapid development and

fast growth, Kosovo also faces rapid urbanization, creating

an influx of CDW from building activities [35]. This influx

needs to be met with proper and efficient waste management

if the country is to move toward a circular economy.

This paper presents a case study of CDW management

in Kosovo, particularly in the cities of Pristina and Fushe

Kosove, evaluating current practices from a legal and opera-

tional standpoint, to ascertain gaps, limitations and possible

improvements in line with current political, economic and

environmental priorities.

The objectives of the paper include:

1. Presenting an overview of the existing management of

CDW from both legal and operational perspectives along

the waste management process

2. Evaluating the operational execution of the management

of CDW relative to the legislation,

3. Identifying approaches necessary to circumventing gaps

in the legislation and/or operations; and

4. Determining approaches, instruments, or incentives for

sustainable management of CDW in the country, aligned

with the EU’s goals of a circular economy.

As a potential candidate for EU Accession, Kosovo must

meet the criteria of economic, social and political stability

and in turn receives institutional and legal guidance from the

EU. An example of this partnership is waste management

legislation, which was drafted and harmonized according

to EU and US standards. However, the existence of an EU-

inspired legal framework does not automatically translate

into efficient implementation of such laws, which is par-

ticularly evident in Kosovo’s handling of its CDW, or lack

thereof (see Fig.1).

Theory

Waste hierarchy andcircular economy

Current literature considers effective waste management

to be of significant importance to the health and economic

wellbeing of society but also to larger systems of resilience

and environmental sustainability [1]. This is reflected in the

underlying paradigms of the EU’s Waste Management leg-

islation, which link waste management concepts—primarily,

the Waste Hierarchy and Circular Economy—to the over-

arching concept of sustainability. Throughout the research,

Kosovo’s performance in CDW management was evaluated

in accordance with this legislation, and how well the country

is meeting the EU requirements.

Waste management practices in the context of EU legis-

lation are prioritized according to the Waste Hierarchy. In

addition, the EU Waste Framework Directive of 2008 [13]

sets boundary conditions for waste management relative to:

a. The usage of waste as a secondary raw material

b. The status of waste as a hazard to human health and the

environment

c. The effects of waste on the land and other places of spe-

cial interest.

Fig. 1 Chart displaying the percentage of CDW Recycled and Reused (including Backfilling) in various European countries. Kosovo’s percent-

age is, noticeably, unknown, likely due to poor recordkeeping [15]

1193Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management (2023) 25:1191–1203

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The concept of Circular Economy, on the other hand,

looks at the wider economic system and aims to extend

material life cycles through an economy of “loops”, to

reduce resource depletion, prevent waste and improve

economic outcomes—in essence minimizing what actu-

ally becomes waste [33, 37]. The EU has advocated the

transition to a circular economy through various publica-

tions, including 2015’s Closing the Loop—An EU action

plan for the Circular Economy [7], which is closely linked

to various objectives of EU policy, including economic

and social agendas, climate and energy, and global efforts

toward sustainable development. In the 2020 Circular

Economy Action Plan, the EU makes the case for a cir-

cular economy by outlining the impacts of Construction

and Buildings (C&B) economic activity. These include

the consumption of roughly 50% of all extracted materi-

als—which accounts for over 35% of the total waste gener-

ated in the EU, and between 5 and 12% of all GHG emis-

sions in the EU, of which some 80% could be saved by

enhancing material efficiency [11]. Moreover, the Action

Plan sets out several goals and strategies to help bridge

the transition to a circular economy. Pertaining to CDW,

these include initiatives towards high-quality recycling,

remanufacturing, reduction of carbon footprints, integra-

tion of life-cycle assessment in public procurement, and

the creation of digital logbooks for buildings.

Waste Hierarchy and Circular Economy operate at

fundamentally different levels: the Waste Hierarchy con-

cerns day-to-day waste management practices, while the

Circular Economy concept functions at a macro level.

Subsequently, the concepts can be synthesized, creating

a linkage between waste management activities and their

direct preferability for a transition to a circular economy.

One such schematization of this duality has been created

by the German Advisory Council of the Environment, as

seen in Fig.2 [16].

Legal framework

According to representatives from the Legal and Adminis-

tration Reform Project, Kosovo’s waste management laws

borrow much of their wording and substance from EU and

US directives. This provides Kosovo with a seemingly robust

legal framework, published through the Official Gazette, a

portal aggregating pertinent documents for the central, local

and judicial realms. However, when discussing Kosovo’s

implementation of the CE, there are still vast gaps in the

legal framework. The concept is not addressed explicitly in

legislation -the closest indication is a very circumspect men-

tion of recycling—mentioned only as a principle and not

fully detailed on how it should be legally carried out.

Legal hierarchy andcompetencies

The most pertinent laws governing CDW management are

the Law on Waste and the Law on Construction [22]. Addi-

tionally, a sub-legal act called an Administrative Instruc-

tions (AI) is issued by Ministries to inform precise munici-

pal action. Relevant AIs include landfill construction, waste

storage management, instructions for drafting municipal

plans and procedures, fee and payment regulation, and

municipal waste collection processes, among others. These

laws are summarized in Annex I.

The legal framework also defines the role of stakeholders

across different levels of governance and assigns responsi-

bilities throughout the waste management chain accordingly.

For CDW, the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning

(MESP) is tasked with issuing legislation, licensing waste

managers (collectors, for instance) and approving larger

infrastructure projects.

The municipalities, however, bear the brunt of the respon-

sibility; they are meant to implement and enforce legislation,

eliminate illegal dumps as well as allocate land for tempo-

rary storage sites, and issue Construction and Demolition

permits for local projects, among others. Additional compe-

tencies are assigned to project leaders (investors, developers)

and waste collectors.

Legal prescription: CDW management

There exist specific and explicit legal prescriptions for the

management of CDW in Kosovo, defined through a series

of Administrative Instructions, which assign competencies

and describe procedures. Figure3 provides an overview of

the relevant legal articles governing the different aspects of

CDW management in Kosovo.

Fig. 2 Graphic displaying the Waste Hierarchy and its Integration

with the Circular Economy, adapted by the authors from German

Advisory Council for the Environment (2020) Towards an Ambitious

Environmental Policy in Germany and Europe [16]

1194 Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management (2023) 25:1191–1203

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The five CDW phases denoted in Fig.3 include the

main elements in the flow of CDW:

• Preparation: planning, permitting, and licensing of

operators and activities required;

• Generation: activities leading to the generation of

CDW;

• Collection & Transportation: Collection is the bringing

together of separate fractions of CDW on the construc-

tion/demolition site; transportation refers to the move-

ment of CDW from the construction/demolition site to

the temporary storage or processing site;

• Processing: the submission of the CDW to specific physi-

cal or chemical processes aiming at enhancing further

processability or use;

• Storage: A site for the temporary storage of the CDW

fractions for later processing and use.

Materials andmethods

Research data on the practices of CDW management in

Kosovo was largely sourced from a book written, in part,

by the authors of this article [22]. The book was developed

Fig. 3 Schematic outlining the

current management of CDW in

Kosovo according to the CDW

phase and its relevant activities.

This figure connects the general

phase of CDW management (as

conceived by authors) on the

left with its constituent activi-

ties and their associated legal

prescriptions on the right [22]

1195Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management (2023) 25:1191–1203

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in collaboration with the local office of the German Interna-

tionale Zusammenarbeit, GIZ, which provided access to the

stakeholders and information necessary for elucidating the

situation in Kosovo.

Due to the absence of prior studies on the topic, field

observations from site visits and interviews with local stake-

holders were used to analyze the pertinent issues concerning

CDW management in Kosovo. During initial data collection,

the absence of official data required annual CDW quantities

to be estimated indirectly through building permits, mapping

and quantifying illegal dumpsites, and analyzing data col-

lected by the GIZ in previous years, using the model devel-

oped by Solís-Guzmán etal. [32]. However, these methods

were judged insufficient in generating reliable quantita-

tive data, thus necessitating a greater reliance on qualita-

tive work. Data was collected through 26 semi-structured

interviews with various stakeholders, including state offi-

cials, municipality workers, construction personnel, private

developers, academics, and informal actors. The interviews

sought to collect knowledge on legal and operational pro-

cesses of CDW management in the country, difficulties and

dynamics between stakeholders, and, where possible, figures

that could help in scaling the problem correctly.

Additionally, the study.

1) Reviewed the CDW legislation to determine how CDW

management is intended to function.

2) Analyzed the existing operational reality of CDW man-

agement in Kosovo, and.

3) Expanded the focus of CDW Management in Kosovo to

include an EU Circular Economy approach.

From the learnings of (1) and (2), the ‘gaps’, namely,

stages where the legal requirements were not implemented,

were identified. The gaps were examined in conjunction with

currently observed capacities to determine both the under-

lying obstacles leading to poor CDW management and the

potential for the eventual transition into a more circular

waste management system.

Limitations

The most fundamental limitation is that Kosovo does not

systematically collect data on the generation and disposal of

CDW, hampering the quantitative accuracy and representa-

tiveness of the empirical findings. A second limitation is the

lack of prior peer-reviewed research on Kosovo’s manage-

ment of CDW. The Government of Kosovo reports yearly on

municipal waste management in the country, but CDW does

not feature prominently in these reports [18]. NGOs such as

the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ),

have taken a more active interest in the issue, commissioning

several studies but these are not peer-reviewed.

The final limitation was the inherent constraints of the

stakeholder interviews as a qualitative tool. As the field

research was conducted over a single week of unstruc-

tured interviews, the information gathered was illustra-

tive rather than exhaustive. Since considerable amounts of

waste were visibly dumped in illegal sites, an admission of

the end destination of CDW was a sensitive topic, leading

to sometimes ambiguous responses, no responses and pos-

sibly false responses. Interviewees were somewhat reticent

to answer all questions, likely because of the perceived

official capacity of the researchers.

Results

Legal framework andoperational flow ofCDW

The analysis found apparent disconnects between legal

requirements and the operational reality. Interviews with

stakeholders in the construction industry revealed pro-

cedures that conflicted with the law, as shown in Fig.4,

column “Operation”. Key actors across public and pri-

vate sectors and civil society reported cited economic

constraints and a lack of political interest in promoting

sustainable practices as primary challenges. These were

due, in part, to prioritizing the rapid redevelopment of the

country in the years following the war.

The following section highlights the main findings on

Kosovo’s CDW management and the gaps between legal

requirements and observed operational practices. These

findings are schematized in Fig.4.

Preparation

A series of bureaucratic steps are legally required includ-

ing applications for Constructions and Demolition Per-

mits. According to AI 06/2017, Art. 10, these applications

require specific documentation and must be inspected by

either Municipal or Ministerial officials [26]. Observed

practice, however, shows that the Kosovar legal frame-

work is not always complied with. According to interviews

with workers, the only permit obtained before Construc-

tion or Demolition is the Construction Permit, which only

requires a property title and a project plan. It is not man-

datory to include a plan for the collection, use or disposal

of the waste produced due to construction or demolition.

Moreover, several interviewees mentioned that there were

insufficient building inspectors to cover the entirety of

Kosovo, likely contributing to the poor enforcement of

permitting and license acquisition.

1196 Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management (2023) 25:1191–1203

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Generation

According to the Law on Waste No. 04/L-060, developers

are expected to keep careful records of CDW generated

during construction and demolition in the Construction

Book [2]. Nevertheless, on-site visits showed that records

of amounts and types of CDW produced were seldom kept.

According to interviewees, legal enforcement of record-

keeping through inspections was infrequent. Without these

processes in place, however, it is challenging to determine

detailed information on the waste streams generated and

implement corrective strategies.

Collection andtransportation

Legally, on-site collection for the safe removal and trans-

port of CDW to storage sites must be organized jointly by

the developer and a licensed CDW transport company [25].

Fig. 4 Schematic outline of Kosovo’s implementation and enforcement of its CDW legal framework and resulting operational flow, adapted by

authors. Notably, there are legal breaches in many areas of legislation which manifest in operational gaps or absences

1197Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management (2023) 25:1191–1203

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Since there were no licensed transport companies in Kosovo,

there did not appear to be any standardized process for col-

lecting CDW from construction sites. Although construc-

tion and demolition activities generate various material frac-

tions, CDW is usually gathered indiscriminately in one or

two piles, depending on the sites’ available space. Coupled

with poor record-keeping, this makes it challenging to track

CDW flows.

Regulations dictate that companies plan for waste man-

agement, including securing proper space and containers

for different materials, during all stages of construction

[2]. However, representatives from construction companies

asserted that only individual workers, operating on their own

initiative rather than company policy, took part in disman-

tling and selling valuable materials that can be easily han-

dled and recirculated, such as metal, plastics, and wood. This

ad hoc recycling did not, however, extend to concrete and

other inert fractions, which are among the most problematic

fractions to manage [14, 34].

According to interviewees, the government has made

licenses for collection and transport available, but no compa-

nies have expressed an interest in applying for these licenses.

Since Kosovo continues to generate CDW, other stakehold-

ers must step in to remove it. Pastrimi, the municipal waste

management company, infrequently transports CDW to the

local landfill, either by a special contract to help stabilize the

landfill or unknowingly, by transporting small-scale home-

renovation CDW mixed into municipal waste containers.

Despite these practices, many interviewees mentioned

that CDW transport is not financially attractive enough

for a more expansive formal market, thus relegating it to

the informal sector. In the absence of licensed companies,

some construction companies hire unlicensed private trans-

port companies, which have the necessary equipment to

transport large fractions of CDW but have not undergone

the processes of receiving their licenses and offering this

service in a formalized way, either due to the costs or that

formalization would put more restrictions on how to handle

the CDW. Informal collectors also play a role in removing

more valuable CDW fractions such as metals and wood,

respectively, sold or used for heating. Although some mate-

rials are collected and transported by informal actors, sent

to recycling companies or reused, substantial amounts end

up “elsewhere”, often meaning, are disposed of illegally.

Processing

CDW must undergo specific physical and chemical process-

ing in order for it to be disposed of in an environmentally

safe manner, reused, or recycled. However, the term pro-

cessing is poorly defined in the Kosovar legal framework.

There are only indications that it is necessary throughout

the process: according to AI 07/2015, Art. 15, disposal must

occur at a site defined by the municipality and must be based

on environmental regulations and population density [25].

Processing of CDW is perhaps most legally robust when

it comes to asbestos, present in many older buildings. The

Kosovar Environmental Protection Agency (KEPA) esti-

mates that some 4000–9000 tons of asbestos are being

removed from buildings every year [24]. The government

of Kosovo has taken legislative steps to address this issue,

though as of 2016, these provisions have not been as robust

as those of other Western countries [5].

In practice, CDW processing seems to be a by-product

of other practices, such as the ad hoc selective demolition

practiced by private companies and the informal sector.

While these practices contribute to the improved separation

of different CDW fractions, this outcome is incidental rather

than deliberate.

Storage

There are no licensed storage or disposal sites for CDW in

Kosovo, despite Kosovo’s legislation requiring each munici-

pality to be responsible for the selection, preparation, and

subsequent management of a site to store or dispose of

locally-generated CDW, separated in defined material frac-

tions. Sites must be selected according to environmental

regulations and population density (AI MESP 07/2015, Art.

15). Storage is, in principle, temporary, meaning that as soon

as processing facilities and capacity are available, the stored

CDW fraction can be collected from the storage site and

transported to a facility for further processing or prepara-

tion for environmentally safe disposal. The absence of desig-

nated storage sites frequently leads to the illegal dumping of

CDW. The lack of storage and disposal sites was, according

to interviewees, a result of municipalities having a difficult

time deciding on the location of such sites as well as the fact

that private companies did not generally find these storage

and disposal-related activities profitable, hindering solutions

from the private sector.

Circular economy

Upon receiving the appropriate licensing, CDW storage sites

should be used to store ‘clean’ fractions of well-separated

CDW awaiting further processing and eventually reuse, recy-

cling, or disposal. Reuse and recycling of processed CDW

is the beginning of material recycling and, thus, an essential

step in implementing the Circular Economy [11].

Repurposing

While the legal framework anticipates recycling and reuse,

it does not define clear procedures for conducting these

1198 Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management (2023) 25:1191–1203

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processes. Private enterprises, alongside informal workers,

are presently the main actors providing CDW recycling. For

instance, two construction companies in the Peja region,

Ndertimtari Beton and Fidani-Beton, possess concrete

crushers in their installations. As part of their demolition

works, these companies separate CDW into fractions and use

the ‘cleaned’ fractions where possible, for example, backfill-

ing, leveling, and the production of bricks.

Interviews revealed that the informal sector plays an

essential role in what little recycling and reuse of CDW

materials occurs. The informal sector directly benefits from

selling valuable materials like metal, using wood for heating

purposes, and reusing concrete for home renovation. The

involved quantities are nevertheless negligible relative to the

amounts of CDW generated from demolition as they do not

cover larger fractions.

However beneficial repurposing CDW might be on the

pressure for raw materials, it is nevertheless essential to

consider the quality of repurposed materials, including the

environmental quality. Environmentally toxic compounds

may leach out from CDW, either during storage, reuse, or

recycling. For that reason, materials meant for repurposing

need to be certified and regulated for their long-term suit-

ability [39].

Field observations demonstrated several challenges with

the implementation of repurposing such as recycling and

reuse activities:

• Multiple stakeholders asserted that the demand for recy-

cled aggregates might be limited by a widespread per-

ception that such products are of a lower quality than the

fresh aggregate.

• The legally prohibited but widespread practice of unregu-

lated demolition and disposal prevents material separa-

tion at source and makes it both mechanically and finan-

cially infeasible for CDW to be sorted for recycling.

• As stated by the law, on-site sorting of materials is

required, yet inspections are not conducted regularly,

and there is a poor market for recycled products. It fol-

lows that there is little incentive for the formal sector to

take recycling seriously, which might also help explain

suboptimal demolition practices and illicit dumping of

CDW.

• Consequently, recycling activities are only handled in a

limited capacity by the informal sector, which may sal-

vage valuable materials from the site. Field observations

showed that selective demolition and recycling were only

carried out in an informal and limited capacity through

stripping, sorting, and selling materials from demolition

sites. However, these remain low-impact practices.

A limited number of existing projects have implemented

measures to prevent and reduce CDW by renovating existing

buildings in place of demolishing and reconstructing. Exam-

ples include Klan Kosova’s new building, an existing indus-

trial building that was renovated with recycled and reused

construction materials [28], and Ndermarrja Publike Bane-

sore (Public Housing Enterprise), a program supporting

public housing associations in building and renovating

energy-efficient structures, made possible through resident

co-funding and financial support from World Bank and the

government [27].

These examples were followed by awareness campaigns,

focusing on the benefits of improved energy performance,

particularly the reduction of long-term expenses and

improvement of building lifespan.

According to interviewees, private companies would be

willing to expand their recycling operations if the demand

for such products would increase and if the regulations for

demolition made on-site sorting and materials recovery

mandatory. However, current recycling investments in the

private sector are minimal and limited to a handful of mobile

crushers.

Discussion

The overarching findings indicate that Kosovo is not ade-

quately implementing the national legislation for CDW man-

agement. Furthermore, under current conditions, significant

reforms within and outside the system are needed to create

a circular economy around CDW.

The most pressing issues obstruct the current system’s

ability to function correctly and must be resolved to mitigate

the economic and environmental effects of poorly managed

CDW and also facilitate the shift to a circular system. There

are several regulatory and operational areas where current

legislation is either poorly implemented and enforced or

absent from the system. Beyond these immediate legisla-

tive and operational issues, the discussion identifies and

contextualizes systemic challenges to CDW management in

relation to the circular economy.

Figure5 schematizes the most pressing issues identified

during the analysis of Kosovo’s CDW management sys-

tem and its observable gaps, as well as a provisional set of

actions to address these issues.

Legislative issues

Permitting

The legislative implementation issue most commonly men-

tioned by stakeholders is the lack of motivation for private

CDW producers and operators to acquire the relevant licens-

ing and permitting for their waste management activities,

1199Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management (2023) 25:1191–1203

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including the collection, transport, and storage of build-

ing and demolition byproducts. This absence of licensed

operators forces the need for informal solutions even from

well-meaning CDW producers. Moreover, unwillingness to

acquire the necessary permitting for demolition makes it

difficult for CDW activities to be quantified and regulated.

If not addressed, these legislative lapses allow for the wide-

spread and unregulated disposal of CDW to persist.

To counter this, the government must articulate and

enforce a clear regulatory vision of construction/demolition

and collection/transport operations to stimulate operators

into acquiring the proper licenses for their activities and stor-

age sites. The new regulations should then implement finan-

cial incentives to ensure waste generators use the licensed

services, consequently curbing existing practices of illegal

and uncontrolled dumping more effectively than increasing

financial penalties [31]. An additional disincentive to ille-

gal dumping would be to improve inspection and enforce-

ment of the demolition plan [10]. Demolition charging fees

should be progressive to keep smaller and less supervised

waste producers motivated to use the proper services. An

additional solution could take the shape of an infrastructure

fee covering disposal though this would require stringent

enforcement [10] of the demolition permit, which has not

yet been achieved. In any case, this complex issue requires

a very careful and well thought-out approach that must be

elaborated upon through additional studies.

Record‑keeping

Despite record-keeping being legally required, its absence

makes it difficult to gather comprehensive quantitative data

on CDW flows, hindering data-driven approaches to deci-

sion-making and subsequent optimization of CDW manage-

ment in Kosovo. Improved record-keeping could start with

enforcing documentation and reporting on both types and

amounts of CDW produced at the source and along defined

points of storage and transport. This would facilitate on-site

sorting and separation of different material fractions and

ultimately increased recycling activities [36].

Operational issues

Authorized storage sites

To facilitate a system where waste products are accounted for

and separated by their material characteristics, CDW man-

agement operations would need to contend with the absence

of authorized disposal and storage sites for CDW. This issue

Fig. 5 Schematic breakdown of the observed issues of CDW man-

agement in Kosovo, evidence and suggested solutions, created by

authors. Gaps were observed in 4 distinct areas: legal and regulatory;

operational; finances; and the framework for a transition to a circular

economic thinking of waste

1200 Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management (2023) 25:1191–1203

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(touched upon also in the regulatory section) is arguably the

most pressing obstacle to effective waste management, directly

contributing to the ongoing practices of informal and illegal

dumping and jeopardizing the ability of the country to keep

CDW under control. Without addressing this, Kosovo cannot

achieve a basic precondition of the circular economy: linking

construction and demolition practices to the reclamation and

valorization of the byproducts of these activities.

• In the short term, this issue could be addressed through

temporary storage sites (to await processing at a later

point in time) rather than simply relying on final disposal

[22].

• The set up of authorized storage sites is an opportunity

for transition to CE as these plans for temporary storage

could be designed with CE in mind from the start, rather

than trying to rehabilitate already inefficient systems.

Selective demolition

Whether Kosovo will seek to transform its current system

outright or iterate in small steps, a critical component of cir-

cular operations will be the inclusion of selective demolition

(SD) as a standardized method for construction and demoli-

tion. Kosovo does not currently practice SD with any degree

of regularity [15], and the overarching legislation does not

explicitly address SD procedures as part of the CDW man-

agement process. Despite this, the transition to a CE requires

this practice, as SD ensures optimal materials recovery [34].

For SD to be willingly adopted by stakeholders, the cost

of disposal must become higher than the cost of recycling,

which would also require increasing the value of recycling

activities by imbuing waste products with value. Both local

and central government could take a proactive role in this

through various strategies, including:

• Incentivizing the addition of recycled materials into cur-

rent building practices through pilot projects and subsi-

dies for such projects and products

• Providing necessary training to ease the transition

towards SD;

• As a stopgap, the current CDW informal sector (the main

party engaged in basic but organized SD practice) could

receive support through improved equipment, training,

and funding to carry out a more efficient and compre-

hensive SD process.

Circular product markets

Various stakeholders asserted that the market for recycled

material was not presently lucrative enough to merit fur-

ther investment (personal communication). The two most

frequently cited barriers to the recycled materials market

were: the high cost of tech investment (evidenced by the

absence of adequate processing facilities); and the lack of

faith in recycled and reprocessed materials, perceived to

be of lower quality. In addition to the standard push–pull

approach (subsidy and tax) [4, 21], Kosovo can address these

concerns using a mix of additional approaches:

• Green banks can play an essential role in financing

investments but cannot be expected to function only at

the discretion of individual actors. The public sector must

prioritize sustainable/green procurement and construc-

tion, which stretches along the entirety of the supply

chain and affects the whole economy [6].

• Requirements must be set for a minimum percentage

usage of recycled materials in public works. This prac-

tice would facilitate new markets, and normalize recycled

products in the public eye. These requirements should

be accompanied by educational campaigns to inform the

industry on the comparative value of such products [17,

30].

• Pilot projects can ease the implementation of these

requirements and validate the feasibility of reprocessed

construction material, setting precedents for more effi-

cient design, adaptive reuse, usage of recycled materials

and reprocessing of recycled material such as asphalt and

brick [38].

• Concurrently, the government can introduce green pub-

lic procurement and third-party product certification

schemes (based on sustainability principles) to unify and

verify the quality of circular products with European and

other international standards [6, 11, 37].

Systemic transition toCE

Moving toacircular legal framework

The current legal framework has been drafted based on

older EU policy and has often been adopted as-is, without

accounting for the different context. Moreover, as evidenced

by the stronger emphasis on disposal over recycling and

reuse, this model is based on a linear economy model and

may be obsolete for circularity. While the measures sug-

gested above can help bridge the gap to CE, there needs to be

a revision of laws to better fit a circular CDW management

system [20]. Any evaluation of compliance with the current

legal framework assumes that the framework is intrinsically

correct and desirable, which may not always be the case. To

facilitate CE, legally prescribed operational flows must be

designed to maximize resource utilization rather than merely

safe disposal, which will produce significant benefits includ-

ing lower overall costs for resource extraction, processing

1201Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management (2023) 25:1191–1203

1 3

and transport and reduced environmental and health exter-

nalities [10].

• To achieve this, operations must emphasize the recovery

and reprocessing of materials acquired through demoli-

tion, with the intent of eventually reusing them as prod-

ucts in various capacities.

• Moreover, to enhance the sustainability of the CDW

management process even further, policy-makers need to

emphasize reducing the need for materials, whether new

or reprocessed, in the first place. This can be achieved

by maximizing the functional lifespan of buildings by

emphasizing maintenance, renovation, and restoration

of existing buildings and more sustainable construction

for new buildings [7, 12]. In addition, the administration

must help municipalities create the right organizational

processes and where necessary provide financial and

technical support to ensure that CDW management is

implemented more effectively at the local level.

The benefits of this include lower overall costs for

resource extraction, processing and transport, and reduced

environmental and health externalities [13, 16, 29]. It is,

therefore, critical that, alongside waste management, Kosovo

also investigates the technologies and expertise necessary

to improve the longevity of its existing and future building

stocks.

Technical implementation

The effective management of CDW (and more generally all

waste streams), a necessary condition for the transition to

CE, also requires addressing the absence of the necessary

technical and technological capacities. In Kosovo, there is an

apparent need to improve infrastructures for CDW treatment,

primarily treatment and processing plants for various types

of construction materials, which are not present at the scale

required to service the entirety of the CDW management

ecosystem. CE will necessitate larger investment in upgrad-

ing and implementing this technical infrastructure by both

private and public sectors. As the requisite infrastructures to

overhaul waste management at the national level are a large

and complex undertaking that individual operators are ill-

equipped to carry out independently, these investments must

be closely coordinated among the various actors.

• A clear vision, strategy, and the responsibilities of the

operational actors using this infrastructure must be

defined going forward.

• The existing technical and financial capacities of relevant

actors need to be evaluated both within the country and

in the region, as some of Kosovo’s neighbors such as

Croatia and Slovenia, have progressed in establishing

these infrastructures and could be instrumental in this

transition [3, 8, 9].

• Where possible, partnerships must be established to

improve overall capacity and facilitate training, knowl-

edge transfers, and economies of scale.

Capacity building

The identified issues affect legal, organizational, envi-

ronmental and economic aspects, while waste manage-

ment activities are presently conducted ad hoc by actors

not equipped to handle CDW efficiently. Improved CDW

management for Kosovo and the subsequent transition to

CE will, therefore, require expanding knowledge, human

and institutional capacities, and new forms of collabora-

tion between all relevant stakeholders. A specialized CDW

department (or task force) could focus on raising awareness,

increasing accountability and capacity building, facilitating

the financial aspects, and managing collaboration with other

stakeholders such as development corporations, the private

sector, and representatives of the informal sector, to name

just a few.

Conclusions

For Kosovo to part with the historical challenges of CDW

and turn a problematic path dependency into opportunity,

the country must make headway in not only overturning its

currently inefficient system but in transitioning to a more

circular way of thinking about what is currently seen as just

“waste”. The investigation of the CDW management system

revealed several critical issues which must be addressed to

achieve this transition:

1. Kosovo is not adequately and comprehensively imple-

menting its national CDW legislation, which is espe-

cially evident in licensing, permitting and record-keep-

ing processes.

2. CDW management is constrained by several inefficien-

cies at the operational level, particularly the absence

of temporary storage, limited implementation of SD,

and generally absent record-keeping. These are among

the main gaps contributing to uncontrolled dumping of

CDW.

3. On a systemic level, the legal framework and the pre-

scribed operations are aligned with a linear approach to

waste management, rather than a circular one, designed

to extract continuous value from materials, even as they

move from product to what used to be called “waste” but

is actually a secondary resource.

4. An underdeveloped market for repurposed or secondary

goods complicates the transition to a more circular sys-

1202 Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management (2023) 25:1191–1203

1 3

tem, making circular practices financially unattractive

for the private sector.

5. Lastly, the above developments require significant

improvement in collaboration and communication

between stakeholders to ensure that the necessary

knowledge, resources, and technical capacities are

implemented to manage CDW more efficiently and sus-

tainably.

All of these factors demonstrate that Kosovo can still sig-

nificantly improve its CDW system. To do so, future research

should prioritize gaining an accurate quantitative account

of CDW flows as well as evaluate the costs and benefits of

possible instruments and incentives that could, in the short

term facilitate a sustainable system of CDW management

(particularly in limiting illegal) dumping and in turn move

towards a measured, sustainable conversion of this waste

stream into a more circular system.

Supplementary Information The online version contains supplemen-

tary material available at https:// doi. or g/ 10. 1007/ s10163- 022- 01577-5.

Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the TU Berlin

Urban Management class of 2020 (Ana Carolina Adriano, Alejandro

Alvarado Lima, Mohammad Arifuzzaman, Maria Aviles, Sofia Buga-

nem, Eunice Doan, Camila Galvez Petzoldt, Khaled Karokhi, Deepa

Joshi, Win Htein Lin, Emilie Martin, Dhany Ningtyas-Ihrcke, Ava

Lynam, Babak Mahmoudi, Muhammad Osama Qasuria, Sunita Rai,

Beste Sensoz, and Igor Tyshchenko) for collecting field data, interview-

ing stakeholders and compiling preliminary findings as part of their

field research in Kosovo in May 2019. Special thanks are due to Juan

José Henao Libreros and Bhrigu Kalia for permitting the use of the

photographic materials in this paper. We would like to thank the staff

of the Kosovo office of GIZ, and the student volunteers from Kosovo

(Gent Agolli, Yllka Agusholli, Eljesa Bela, Arber Binaku, Edolind

Bytyci, Leontina Cena, Vigan Iberdemaj, Fjolla Kosumi, Vlerë Kras-

niqi, and Lum Sadiku) for their logistical and organizational support

and great hospitality throughout our stay in Kosovo. Lastly, we’d like

to thank the representatives we met in Pristina and Fushe Kosova,

including those from the Municipality of Fushe Kosova, the Minis-

try of the Environment, members of the Roma community, and many

other Architects, Engineers and Lawyers who provided their time and

insights into Kosovo’s construction and demolition waste management.

We acknowledge support from the German Research Foundation and

the Open Access Publication Fund of TU Berlin.

Author contribution Conceptualization: MS; Methodology: MTA;

Formal analysis and investigation: MJ, JK, AT; Writing—original

draft preparation: MTA, HA-O; Writing—review and editing: MA,

MS; Funding acquisition: AT, MA; Visualization: MA; HAO; Super-

vision: MS.

Funding Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt

DEAL. Funding was received from Technische Universität Berlin.

Data Availability The authors declare that [the/all other] data support-

ing the findings of this study are available within the article [and its

supplementary information files].

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons

Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing,

adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format,

as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the

source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate

if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this

article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless

indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not

included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended

use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted

use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright

holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creat iveco mmons.

org/ licen ses/ by/4. 0/.

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