"In Kosovo, Roma's recycling work is unsung, underpaid", 29 September 2019

Kosovo's…haphazard waste management…is one of several environmental threats…with illegal dumpsites...and harzardous landfills leaking into the grounwater...Similarly forgotten are the poorest...who do the bulk of waste sorting in Kosovo,...[mostly hailing] from the marginalised Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian [(Roma)] communities...

An absence of formal contracts - coupled with discrimination…leaves the scrap collectors open to exploitation by companies who purchase what they collect and export it abroad. [Collectors] earn [approximately]...50-100 euros…a month, a fifth of the average wage in Kosovo, according to…the European Centre for Minority Issues Kosovo. [I]n an industry that generates around 40 million euros annually,…[NGO Advancing Together say]…some of that money could be used to help lift the waste collectors out of poverty.

Dirty and dangerous, the work...keeps Roma…and other minorities marginalised, [says] Bashkim Ibishi from NGO Advancing Together. The recycling…poses health risks as the workers lack proper [protection] to handle [hazardous] waste…The Maksutis [(one Roma family)]…come to Kosovo to work…[and] send their older children to dig through bins…"We keep the (young) children away so they do not get sick".

[Kosovo's] Environmental Protection Agency said that "the current solid waste management system…is environmentally unsustainable”…fewer than 60 percent of homes covered by garbage collection. [Efforts] to tackle the issue were cut short by the collapse of the government this summer…In the meantime, families...eke out a living, bringing home up to eight euros on a good day.