Maghtab for land reclamation

Permit me to react to the interview carried under the heading "Turning problems into opportunities" (August 22).

I have no doubt that the suggestion over the Maghtab waste dump was made in good faith but it seems that George Borg is not well versed in waste management.

I say this on the basis of his statement that "over 80 per cent of the Maghtab dump consists of building waste. By resorting to land reclamation, it would not be such a big problem to transport the building waste across the road to the sea". He further asserts this by adding that "the developers would clean up the Maghtab dumb, getting rid of the construction waste by reclaiming the sea".

The fault with this line of argument is that it is based on the flawed concept that the waste being dumped at Maghtab can somehow be separated into two, toxic and non-toxic.

It is true that at the point of entry, prior to any waste being deposited at Maghtab, this can indeed be separated according to its toxic or non-toxic characteristics. It is also true that most of the construction waste being deposited there is non-toxic, and it is precisely for this reason that the previous Labour administration had started initiatives intended to ensure that this significant part of our local waste stream would no longer find its way into Maghtab but, rather, be deposited into the large number of unused quarries situated around the island.