The controversial incinerator at St Luke's Hospital may be decommissioned from as early as next month, pending a go-ahead from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) for the new, state-of-the-art abattoir incinerator that will replace it.
The new incinerator at the abattoir in Marsa, which was funded by the Italian Financial Protocol, was originally meant to serve the government slaughterhouse.
However, in order to put it to a more cost-effective use, the government decided to upgrade it to cater also for the incineration of clinical and industrial waste.
As a result, the incinerator at St Luke's Hospital will be closed down and there will be no need to buy another incinerator for Mater Dei Hospital.
Speaking to The Times, a spokesman for the Environment Ministry said the incinerator is geared to start operating as soon as Mepa issues the permit. Once the incinerator is up and running, the one at St Luke's Hospital will be closed down.
Waste treatment engineer Mary Grace Micallef explained that the equipment, which satisfies the European standards, will ensure there will be no odours or thick black smoke - something which was the order of the day at St Luke's, provoking vociferous objections.
On the other hand, what one might see belching out of the new incinerator chimney will be steam.
With regard to odours, Ms Micallef said that since the waste will be incinerated at temperatures surpassing the 850-degree mark, organic compounds will be destroyed, thereby eliminating smells.
The whole process is automated and a computerised system will give engineers an idea of what kind of waste the individual skips contain, since each skip supplying the incinerator is equipped with a chip containing information of its whereabouts.
It is being envisaged that between 50 and 60 skips full of waste will be arriving at the plant on a daily basis from various waste producers, including hospitals and private slaughterhouses. These will be placed in a freezer with temperatures ranging between zero and four degrees.
Each skip, which has a volume of 1,100 litres, enters a lift and the contents from the abattoir are deposited into a shredder which makes it easier for this waste, which would even include carcasses, to be incinerated.
Once shredded, the waste is transferred to the furnace.
Clinical waste bypasses the shredding stage and is transferred from the skips into the furnace. The skips are washed automatically with water and steam.
The diesel-powered furnace reaches temperatures exceeding 850 degrees.
The gases move to another chamber with a higher temperature - around 950 degrees. They will then be passed on to yet another chamber, where the temperature will be brought down to 185 degrees, and then mixed with chemicals before reaching a fabric filter.
The gas which eventually reaches the chimney is purified and contains neither odour nor colour. The incinerator will be in operation around the clock.
WasteServ is looking into whether the abattoir incinerator could be self-sufficient in terms of electricity, utilising the steam produced by the incinerated waste.
When asked, Ms Micallef said the incinerator can treat 1.5 tonnes of abattoir waste every hour but the tonnage depends very much on the type of waste which is being treated in view of the maximum energy which can be produced by the process.
A public information campaign is under way to address concerns raised by several residents and by the Marsa local council, especially with regard to the increase in traffic carrying the skips and the odours they leave behind.