Upgrading the Sant'Antnin waste treatment plant

The closure of the former dumpsites at Maghtab, Qortin and Wied Fulija, and the phasing in of new waste management practices, especially the introduction of bring-in sites, has deviated a number of recyclables to the Sant'Antnin facility.

The waste streams include paper, cardboard, plastics, tyres, batteries, wood and green waste, metal and bulky refuse, computers and glass, all of which is treated at the plant and passed on for recycling in different forms.

The rise in the number of waste streams has increased the amount of dry waste being deposited at Sant'Antnin and today a total of 3,360 tonnes of waste a month is being treated at this plant.

This figure is constantly on the increase and is expected to continue to rise as people become more aware of their environmental responsibilities. During the past eight months 260 tonnes of paper, 92 tonnes of plastic, 48 tonnes of metal and 139 tonnes of glass were collected from bring-in sites and deposited at Sant'Antnin for further manual separation and eventual recycling.

These amounts are a positive indication for the extension of waste separation in Malta and Gozo. However it has added pressure as the plant cannot handle such loads.

At present the main operations at Sant'Antnin include the processing of mixed household waste to produce low-grade compost to be used for agricultural purposes or as landfill cover and shredding of green waste and wood for compost.

Another waste management activity performed at this site is the manual sorting of the dry waste fractions (predominantly packaging) recovered for recycling.

To date this is performed in the open areas on the limited ground floor space available. Due to the lack of necessary infrastructure, dry recyclable waste is hand-sorted on the ground to recover good quality scrap material.

These working conditions have rendered this operation inefficient to meet the demand resulting from the ever-increasing number of bring-in sites and other dry waste separation initiatives.

Upgrading existing plant

Through the implementation of the Solid Waste Management Strategy of 2001, the government has set a number of targets to increase the amount of material recovered and recycled.

The current structure of the Sant'Antnin facility cannot keep pace since the operations need to be modernised. Upgrading this facility would bring about both social benefits that are highly desirable and enhance the level and quality of the operations, so that a better product is yielded for recycling.

Some composting activities, in newly constructed closed tunnels, will continue to be undertaken to obtain that fraction of clean compost that is required locally. The overall objective of the proposed upgrading is to enable the Maltese Islands to achieve a more sustainable system for managing waste.

EU Cohesion Funds application

The planned upgrading of the Sant'Antnin facility will ensure the improvement of the operational and environmental conditions of this site. Clean, biodegradable waste that is known to be recoverable from households as a result of source segregation and separate collection of municipal waste will be treated on site.

From this waste stream, the new installation will recover energy which will be used either in the process itself or to produce electricity and good quality compost for local agricultural purposes.

The proposed development will include:

∑ a materials recycling facility (MRF) capable of sorting 36,000 tonnes of separately collected recyclables per annum;

∑ a digestion plant that will treat 35,000 tonnes of biodegradable waste. This plant will recover energy from waste;

∑ a modular composting plant that will compost the product from the digestion plant.

For the modernisation of this plant a total of €16.7 million in European Union Cohesion Funds have been allocated. The reliance on the Cohesion Fund to upgrade this facility is indispensable if the targets outlined in the Solid Waste Management Strategy are to be met to the satisfaction of international and national waste management legislation, standards and best practices.

The proposed development is expected to lead to an improvement of the environmental, social and economic impacts experienced from the operations of the current plant. This investment will also ameliorate the present percentages of recovered materials from the general waste stream.

It will also help to achieve this through improved work conditions for the workforce and through greater public participation as a result of Government's commitment to prioritise this public concern.

An Environment Impact Assessment is currently being conducted to ensure that the new process will not have any adverse effects on both the surrounding neighbourhood, as well as the environment in general.

Dr Ing. Ciantar is head, Strategy and Development, WasteServ Malta Ltd.