The Sant'Antnin recycling plant in Marsascala needs to be overhauled before rubbish separation at source in households can start, Christopher Ciantar, strategy and development executive of WasteServ Malta Ltd, said in an interview.

About 40,000 tonnes of all the rubbish collected from households each year end up hotchpotch at the Sant' Antnin plant, where it is separated and then turned into compost.

But the end result obtained is not good enough for agricultural use because domestic waste is not properly separated at source and the recycling plant is not up to scratch to recover impurities that end up in the compost produced.

"The plant needs to be upgraded so that waste is processed in a new, closed system that does not emit foul smells. The new plant, for which the European Commission has allocated €16.7 million, has been designed so as not to occupy an area larger than the footprint of today's recycling plant," Dr Ciantar explained.

In the proposal that WasteServ has submitted to the European Union, it estimated that of the 200,000 tonnes of waste produced in Malta each year, besides the 1.6 million tonnes of construction waste disposed of in unused quarries, 36,000 tonnes of dry waste will be collected from bring in-sites and separated for commercial re-use while organic waste, which will be turned into compost, would amount to 35,000 tonnes a year.

Dr Ciantar explained that once the plant is ready, organic waste would be pre-treated through a mechanical process which separates organic waste from rejects. The mixture is then passed into an enclosed digestion plant.

"The results of this process are 30 per cent of waste water, 15 per cent of clean biogas that is then used to heat the system and to generate electricity and 55 per cent of high grade compost," Dr Ciantar said.

The Sant'Antnin plant was opened in 1992 and, in 1998, an eco-pod system was introduced to reduce the foul smells that had become very problematic in the first years of the plant's operation.

Dr Ciantar explained that foul smells are the result of fermentation of rubbish and, in order to reduce smells, organic waste started being stored in 60-metre-long plastic bags instead of being left out in the open.

Waste is left to ferment for between eight and 13 weeks in the pods and air is pumped into them to allow biological agents to turn it into compost.

Dr Ciantar said that since the eco-pod system was introduced, the efficiency of the recycling process was reduced so much that the 80,000 tonnes maximum capacity of the plant was halved.

"The long-term aim is to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in the landfill, both due to environmental considerations and even due to location constraints. So we need to reach a point when we recycle as large an amount of our waste as possible," Dr Ciantar said.

The plant also receives glass, paper/cardboard, plastic and metal which are collected from bring-in sites but these are processed separately from domestic waste. Different kinds of plastics, paper and glass are separated by hand and packed for recycling. Some materials, such as white paper, are given to Maltese industries and other kinds of waste are exported.

At present, such materials are separated by hand. But thanks to a material recovery facility conceived in the new plans, dry recyclables will be properly processed into marketable products supposedly using smarter methods.

Media reports have voiced concern about the impact on residents and the environment in Marsascala once the new plant will be built. Dr Ciantar said that according to an environment impact assessment, which has been carried out and which the public may consult, the project is not likely to have any adverse impacts on the surrounding habitats. "The process is cleaner and is much more efficient than the one which there is already."

As to when the new plant is expected to start functioning, Dr Ciantar said the last invoice against which the EU will grant funds needs to be sent to the Commission by the end of 2007.

According to public procurement rules of the European Union, WasteServ will issue a Europe-wide call for tenders for the construction of the plant.

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