Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania rank among the top ten countries globally where the fewest households separate their waste, with the other seven countries all located in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new World Risk Poll report by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

The report, "World of Waste: Risks and Opportunities in Household Waste Management”, reveals that slightly over half (53%) of people worldwide live in households that separate materials in their waste before disposal. This trend is more common in high-income countries, which often have the infrastructure and capacity to manage recyclable waste effectively. In contrast, lower-income countries frequently lack such capabilities.

The three Western Balkan countries have waste separation rates that are well below other countries in the Eastern Europe region, where 54% of respondents said they separate their waste and a further 3% sometimes separate it. 

In Kosovo, 84% of households do not separate their waste, while the figure is 78% in both Albani and Montenegro. 

According to the report, "Kosovo lacks any form of proper waste management for its domestic (or other) refuse. In Montenegro, separation is not effective because recyclable waste is often not sorted post-collection, and people are given no incentives to separate waste at the source. Likewise, in Albania, there are few structures in place to enforce or incentivise separation and recycling, and any separation that is done is mostly informal."

Kosovo ranks third in the list of countries where people do not separate household waste before disposal, trailing behind Ivory Coast and Gabon. Montenegro and Albania share the ninth position on the table, with slightly better results than Togo, Cameroon, Benin, Liberia and the Republic of Congo.

The report points to "a lack of knowledge, awareness and education among the general population" in Kosovo as factors hampering progress toward more separation of household waste at the source. "More educational and awareness programmes need to be delivered," it suggests.

"Helping households separate their waste more easily and effectively in large parts of Eastern Europe would mean that more households would dispose of their waste in more sustainable (collected and separated) ways," the report says.

The Western Balkans as a whole continues to struggle with waste management, as reported by bne IntelliNews. While waste generation has increased sharply in recent decades, waste management infrastructure has in general failed to keep up, despite some high profile investments into the sector. 

Globally, more than two in five households dispose of their waste in an uncontrolled manner, such as open burning or throwing it in the street, posing significant risks to health and the environment. While government collection is the most common disposal method, benefiting 44% of global households, there is a significant divide between urban and rural areas, which widens as country income levels decline.

Plastic and food waste are the materials most commonly discarded, with four in five people (80%) naming either plastic (42%) or food (38%) as the primary components of their household waste. In high-income countries, plastic is the most prevalent material thrown away. However, the issue extends to some lower-income countries as well, where recycling infrastructure is often insufficient.

"Collecting household waste is crucial for preventing disposal methods that harm people’s health and the environment, such as open dumping or open burning," the report states. "Separating waste can directly contribute to meeting climate mitigation goals because of its links to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and conserving natural resources. But for household waste collection to provide the most value, waste must first be separated into different containers depending on the materials involved."

The report identifies several barriers to separating waste, including low household awareness of the importance of separation, logistical challenges, lack of infrastructure and the extra capacity required to keep materials separate in different containers and prevent cross-contamination, as well as broader socioeconomic factors.

The report is based on data collected by global pollster Gallup, which conducted 147,000 interviews across 142 countries and territories. It highlights that poor household waste management contributes to environmental problems and poses risks to human health.