TRASH Talk

A Weekend Exploration of Prishtina's Waste

Takeaways

01Understand the complexity of the work that NGOs and public bodies do.

02Help us understand and focus on the most relevant issues.

03Enable the community to learn and assimilate new knowledge in the future.

The team working at Prishtina Hackerspace during the hackathon
Understand the Complexity
The full hand-drawn waste-system map: dozens of actors and arrows
Understand the Complexity
The Pristina waste-system actor map rendered as an interactive node graph Open the live map ↗
Relevant Issues
Interactive timeline of the December 2024 to June 2025 Pristina waste crisis Open the live timeline ↗
Relevant Issues
HackTheTrash citizen reporting app — photo-first report screen Open the live app ↗
Relevant Issues
MIRASH LANDFILL · SENTINEL-2 MONITOR ● 2017–2026 TIME-LAPSE
Sentinel-2 true-colour time-lapse of the Mirash landfill, 2017 to 2026
TRUE COLOUR (B4/B3/B2) · MUNI FOCUS · 800 m AOI · 35 MONTHLY FRAMES
SELECT BAND / VIEW
LAT / LON
42.6666° N · 21.0617° E
RESOLUTION
10 m / px
REVISIT
5 days
SOURCE
ESA Copernicus · $0
−77%vegetation index
in ROI, 2017→26
+72%bare-ground
area
Learn and Future Updates
Many sourcesreports · law · press · field notes
Claude analyzes & interrogatesextract · reconcile · cross-link
The Dossier14 cross-linked, source-cited files

How Trash Works

The narrative backbone — who collects, who pays, who decides, and where the political friction lives.

COULD ADD field interviews + neighbourhood-level detail.

OPERATIONAL + POLITICAL

Timeline

Every dated event from the first landfill plans through the 2027 law, in one chronology.

COULD ADD live entries as new events happen.

95dated events

Numbers

Tonnages, fees, budgets and rates — each tied to the source it came from.

COULD ADD monthly figures with auto-generated charts.

115data points · 4 series

Law Diff

Clause-by-clause comparison of the old law and the incoming Integrated Waste law.

COULD ADD track amendments as the law moves.

13dimensions

System Map

The actors and the money, authority and oversight flows between them.

COULD ADD sub-actors + evidence on every edge.

60 / 90nodes / edges

Sim Cards

Each policy lever as a card you can play against the model.

COULD ADD a runnable budget simulation.

21levers

Tensions

Where two sources disagree on a fact — flagged, not hidden.

COULD ADD resolve open items with primary sources.

CROSS-SOURCE RECONCILED

Glossary

Every acronym and named actor in the system, disambiguated.

COULD ADD short bios + org charts for key actors.

~50entries

Open & public, MIT-licensed. Every claim cites its source — and it grows as new reports land.

Learn and Future Updates
6 raw documentsAlbanian + English · PDF / DOCX / PPTX
Claude extracts & interrogatesread · structure · summarize
Structured summariesthat feed the dossier

INDEP / KAS

INDEP/KAS report cover

Policy roadmap for moving Kosovo from disposal toward circular value chains.

ALBANIAN · PDF

DYVÓ — Plastics

DYVÓ plastics research

2023 research on plastic-waste streams and the recycling reality.

DOCX

GIZ Presentation

GIZ presentation

Donor programme briefing on waste-management support.

PPTX

PG-CE Outlook

PG-CE outlook

Programme outlook for the circular-economy transition.

PDF

Legal Framework

Legal framework document

Assessment of Kosovo's existing waste legal framework.

PDF

Data & Graphs

Data and graphs document

Supporting figures behind the headline numbers.

DOCX

More reports, press, and field data slot in the same way — re-run the extraction, and the dossier updates.

Conclusion

The Hackathon Framework can be used for any exploration, and continued alongside any partner organization.

Hackathon Framework

Reports Law Press Field notes Satellite Citizen photos
FLOSSK Repothe shared workspace
Claudeanalyze · interrogate
Shared artifactsdossier · system map · data · monitoring
Apps
Interactive sites
Other projects

Point the repo at any issue — the engine stays the same.

The open source community is at its best working with public information, alongside partners who are open to making their data public.

The best short-term hackathon projects are shaped like citizen journalism, technical proofs of concept, and frameworks that make information and analysis open to everyone.

Longer-term projects with aligned partners can be scoped from that initial work, with hackathon participants continuing alongside or in an advisory role. Ideally the work continues in some form.

Prepared by Mike Merrill for FLOSSK