The government is proposing the building of another two municipal waste treatment plants and an incinerator in an attempt to avert the need to extend the Ghallis engineered landfill when it fills up in 2013.
An updated waste management strategy, launched today by Resources Minister George Pullicino, proposes the building of a municipal and agricultural waste treatment plant between Mghatab and Ghallis and a similar but smaller plant between Sannat and Xewkija in Gozo.
The incinerator, which will treat waste which cannot be turned into compost by the treatment plants, will be built at Delimara close to the power station.
The new facilities will complement the existing Sant Antnin municipal waste treatment plant, which handles a third of all municipal waste in Malta. Mr Pullicino said the ultimate aim of the new strategy – which updates the one issued in 2001 – is to eliminate, as far as possible, the need to landfill waste.
Should all new facilities come on stream, only a small fraction of the volume of waste produced in Malta and Gozo will need to go to the landfill, thus eliminating the need for its extension or its replacement by a new one, at least until 2023.
Mr Pullicino highlighted the progress made in waste management over the years, noting in particular that the Maghtab dump was closed in 2004 and some 40,000 cubic metres of harmful gases are currently being extracted from it every day ahead of its rehabilitation.
The government, he said, was determined to ensure that all waste would, as far as possible, be treated and recycled, rather than dumped. Therefore, as a means to discourage use of the landfill and to encourage waste separation and recycling, the gate fee at the engineered landfill will this year rise from the current 0.77c per tonne to €20 per tonne. There will be no costs to the people.
The minister said said that additional costs incurred by local councils as a result of this measure would be paid for from the increase in the funding for the councils given by the central government this year. But the councils get to keep any savings made by reducing the tonnage of waste that goes to the landfill.
He also pointed out that with the building of the waste treatment plant in Gozo, municipal waste would no longer have to be transported to Malta, as is done at present. The new plant in Gozo and the new plant in Malta will also handle agricultural waste, including manure, which will no longer be dumped, because it harms the water table.
The two new treatment plans, like Sant’ Antnin, will produce electricity which will be fed into the power grid. Mr Pullicino dismissed environmental risks from the incinerator, saying this would be a high technology facility meeting EU standards, of the type in wide use in countries such as Austria and Germany.
The incinerator is expected to cost €108m and may be built as a public-private partnership while the waste treatment plants in Ghallis and Gozo will cost €45m and €10m respectively.
Disposal of building debris and sewage sludge do not form part of the strategy and will be tackled separately..
A public consultation on the new waste management strategy will be held over the coming eight weeks.