Civic amenity sites for bulky refuse planned

The first civic amenity site for households' bulky refuse should start operating in Maghtab in November as part of WasteServ's strategy to expand its waste separation policy to include such refuse.

Before the year is out four other such civic amenities, each taking about 5,000 square metres of land, will be up and running in Mriehel, Hal Far, Luqa and Tal-Kus in Gozo.

WasteServ chief executive Vince Magri is hoping that the introduction of these sites will spell an end to the illegal dumping of furniture and white goods in the countryside.

"True, illegal dumping is the result of a lack of respect for the environment.

"However, I believe the Maltese family is overall very clean and the reason behind such dumping is that it wants to get rid of the waste immediately, without waiting a few days for the bulky refuse service to collect it," he said in an interview.

"Now we are providing these people with the chance to put their refuse in their car and instead of driving into the countryside, to take a detour to one of these five civic amenity sites and get rid of their waste responsibly," he added.

These civic amenities will soak up €2.7 million of the €4.6 million allocated for waste separation from the EU's Structural Funds for 2004-2006.

The applications were submitted to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority towards the end of 2004, but what took long was the processing of the permits and the acquisition of land.

"A problem that persists is that everybody resists our development because it's related to waste - nobody wants it within the confines of their locality. However, these issues have been ironed out and the tenders have been issued and the contracts awarded," he said.

Mr Magri said each civic amenity site will be managed and initially the service will be free. The sites are strictly intended for the bulky refuse of households and small shops and companies, not large industries or contractors.

Each site will have about 16 to 20-foot containers allocated for cardboard, glossy paper, glass, white goods, televisions, oils, wood, batteries, electronic equipment, metals, furniture, paints and the construction waste generated from small do-it-yourself home jobs, among others.

Basically, whoever wishes to get rid of their waste can drive right through the site, find the container allocated for the specific waste and dispose of it there, driving right out again.

So is Mr Magri confident that the public will actually take their waste to these sites?

"Experience from the bring-in sites has been very positive.

It has been a long journey, considering they were introduced in 1998, but at the moment we cannot cope with the demand for more such sites," he pointed out.

By the end of the year the number of bring-in sites is expected to go up to 400 from the present 70 to meet the demand by households wishing to recycle their waste.

Last month 20,000 tons of waste was received at the Ta' Zwejra landfill, the same amount as June last year, which means that the increase in the amount of waste generated was being absorbed by the bring-in sites.

"We are hopeful that the civic amenity sites will further reduce the impact of waste generation on the landfills," Mr Magri said.