Caroline Muscat
Is incineration a solution to overconsumption?
Waste watchers... municipal waste being sorted at the San Antnin plant in Marsascala. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier
An environmental expert has criticised the government's proposed €108 million investment in an incinerator at Delimara to deal with the annual increase in municipal solid waste, as outlined in the waste management strategy launched by the Resources Ministry last Friday.
Prof. Edward Mallia said the government had failed to tackle the reduction of waste at source: "The increased reliance on incineration was foreseeable. This is because the government has made no real effort to reduce the creation of waste. It is therefore inevitable that waste will increase and the most convenient way to deal with this is to burn it," Prof. Mallia said.
The municipal solid waste stream has increased by around 2.4 per cent annually since 2001. At the same time, the percentage of the waste stream that is separated for recycling remains low, according to figures presented in the strategy.
In spite of the fact that the amount of separated waste collected has increased annually since 2003, the total amount of separated waste collected from bring-in sites and the 'Recycle Tuesdays' initiative is estimated to yield just 5.7 per cent of the total waste stream generated by households.
The 'Recycle Tuesdays' initiative has so far managed to contribute to about 27.7 per cent of its statistical potential.
The vision that guides the new strategy, according to Resources Ministry permanent secretary Chris Ciantar is that "Malta builds upon a zero waste scenario whereby we reduce volumes of waste into the landfill, and in so doing recover value from the waste fractions generated in the form of renewable energy and recyclables."
'Zero Waste' is a concept that is being increasingly adopted around the world. According to the Zero Waste Alliance, a US-based partnership of universities, government, business and other organisations, "Zero Waste emulates sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are resources for others to use. Zero Waste means designing and managing products and processes to reduce the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources, and not burn or bury them."
Critics claim that reliance on incineration as part of a zero waste strategy is inconsistent. Moreover, this technology is related to concerns that focus on human health and environmental degradation. Prof. Mallia said the incineration of mixed waste creates cancer-causing substances including heavy metals and dioxins, which were classified as the most toxic man-made substances. In order to avoid their release into the air, an investment in capital intensive control measures, such as filters, is required.
However, any chemicals that are prevented from release into the atmosphere still appear in the ash, which is therefore considered to be toxic. This will have to be disposed in a hazardous waste landfill.
A part of the hazardous waste stream is already being diverted to the Marsa incinerator, together with abattoir waste. Prof. Mallia expressed concern that no information has been supplied on emissions from this plant: "Reassurances that the emissions meet EU standards should have ceased to be good enough a long time ago. The Aarhus Convention gives us the right to have the information, not assurances."
Prof. Mallia said that relying on waste for renewable energy may act as a disincentive to introduce alternative energy sources: "This is a serious temptation. Even if we ignore the harmful by-products of incineration, we are still faced with an increase in carbon dioxide emissions, which need to be reduced because of climate change."
According to the strategy, the incinerator will contribute to Malta's targets for renewable energy. Yet mixed waste incinerators are inefficient energy producers, capturing only around 20 per cent of the energy generated by waste.
According to the Zero Waste Trust, recycling plastic saves three to five times more energy, recycling paper saves two to four times more energy and recycling metal saves 30 to 888 times more energy than is gained through incineration. In fact, incinerators use more energy than they produce.
The waste management strategy launched for public consultation puts a strong emphasis on energy generation from waste. The aim is to produce five per cent of our renewable energy requirements from this source.
In addition to the energy expected from the incinerator, the aim is to capture the gas emitted from the Ghallis landfill and convert it to energy.
Energy would also be produced from an additional two pre-treatment plants planned at an investment of €55 million. One plant would be built adjacent to the Ghallis engineered landfill and the other would be located at Tal-Lewz in Gozo, between the councils of Sannat and Xewkija.
These plants are intended to reduce the amount of waste that is not being separated and recycled and therefore going to landfill (estimated at 150,000 tonnes). However, they also create their own waste.
The new plants at Ghallis and Gozo, together with the Sant Antnin plant in Marsascala, the captured gas at Ghallis landfill and the proposed incinerator, would generate half of Malta's renewable energy targets.
Asked whether this was a realistic estimate, Mr Ciantar said: "We are convinced we will achieve it."
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John Pace
Jan 26th 2009, 12:19
At long last the government has realised that the only way to reduce the waste problem was incinertion. Of course Greenpeace campaigns against incineration in America where there is ample space for landfill, but in Malta this is not the case. The attempt at using digertors, which only treat a small proportion of the waste was an expensive failure. The fact that incinerators are used in environment concious countries like Germany should put our minds at rest that emissions can be controlled.
This does not mean that the reduce and recycle programme should stop, but however great the success of this programme there will always be wastes that have to be landfilled so these should first be reduced to the minimum possible by incinerating the combustible parts.
G. MELI
Jan 25th 2009, 17:11
JUST WENT FOR A WALK ALONG TA' XBIEX COAST ROAD, TA' XBIEX, OPPOSITE THE GREEK EMBASSY AND WE NOTICED THAT THE FOUR DIFFERENT LARGE BINS HAD BEEN BURNED, PROBABLY DURING LAST NIGHT. DO WE SAY THAT WE A CIVILIZED COUNTRY? WHY WHO EVER BURNED THEM, WAS HIS PLASURE, MAYBE HE WAS COLD AND WANTED TO GET WARM?
MANY OF THE SMALL BINS HAVE BEEN LATELY DISTROYED, WHILE FOUR LARGE ELECTIC POLES HAD BEEN STOLEN AND REPORTED TO THE MAYOR? BUT WHY DON'T WE INVEST IN FURTHER SECURITY SERVICES AND HAVE SEVERAL CAMERA (CCTV) INSTALLED IN ALL THESE SURROUNDING AREAS? SHAME TO THE PERSON OR PERSONS WHO DONE THESE ACTS!!!!
Peter Dimech
Jan 25th 2009, 14:50
Since when is Ghallis big enough for a recycling plant costing €45 million? According to the EIA Studies by SLR (foreign consultants to WasteServ) it was concluded in the site selection exercise of the Sant’Antnin recycling plant that the site in Ghallis was not suitable for it was far too small, just over 2.hectares when the Sant’Antnin was 4.7hectares capable of processing 200,000 tonnes of waste annually. It now seems that the government has misled the public once more for the Ghallis site would have been the alternative site for one recycling plant large enough to handle all the waste from around Malta and Gozo. The Sant’ Antnin valley could have been spared and instead revamp the area into a natural park. The sole aim of this government is to waste EU/ Maltese funds on waste management were he could have utilised them on other more useful projects. A shameful government with no ideas.
lgalea
Jan 25th 2009, 13:51
Have a look at a Masters Degree in International Law thesis by Mr Augustus Debono which can be downloaded from http://www.cnimalta.org/sa.html
to see how eu countries including Germany gave free incinerators to third world countries to produce free energy and then exported their dangerous waste products free to these countries to be used as fuel in the incinerators instead of disposing of it themselves in their countries.
D Delia
Jan 25th 2009, 13:31
What Prof Mallia is so very true.
We are being hammered all the time by Wasteserve in Schools, Govt Departments, etc, to apply the famous three R's (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle).
But unfortunately the first R may not have Governments' full support, because such measures are seen as stifling for the economy particularly now.
If you Reduce packaging, the packaging companies starts to complain and threaten to throw out employees. The same goes for the plastic bottles manufactures, label printers etc etc. It’s the least any Government would like to have.
On the other hand any Government would find it more suiting to look as an environmental hero by investing big money in Recycling Plants, incinerators etc…………….when most of it can be avoided if the first R is taken seriously.
Steve Rogers
Jan 25th 2009, 11:08
@Chris Ciantar,
The only real "recycling" that ever occured in Malta was Maghtab when Wasteserv shifted garbage from one area to another which was lined.
Anyone in the Waste industry and politics knows thr truth about the Waste Framework Directive. Its a failure. When it was devised it did not take into account the dynamics of Island Member States. (At the time the UK was there but stayed mum),
Further to this the Packaging Waste directive is a failure. Plastic bottles are wide spread now. And the people running the packaging waste scheme driving Recycle Tuesdays currently do not have a permit from MEPA to operate. Can the Ministry publish their data as of this Monday? It should be on hand for the public to see.
You want real recycling? Forget these schemes. Introduce the deposit schemes not only on glass bottles, but also on plastic and cans like they do in the United States and you will get every Maltese and Gozotan going. There are people in the US that live on collecting cans and getting there refunds,
J.Bonnici
Jan 25th 2009, 10:54
So much for the pompous press conference by the Environment Minister and his aid Engineer C. Ciantar. The massive €I08m incinerator was destined to be placed between Zejtun and Marsascala close to the Sant' Antnin recycling plant as being the third phase of the waste management project. Due to the hard resistance by the Committee against the vitiated process the government had a rethink and decided to dump it in Delimara, still in the south of Malta, close to Zejtun and Marsaxlokk. In the case of the Sant' Antnin recycling plant to the present day no health studies were carried out by the authorities as imposed by MEPA and EU regulations. How could the Authorities responsible wave aside such an important issue in the EIA studies on how it effects people's health and pretend that every thing was done accordingly. Is the same thing going to happen with the incineration in Delimara vis--vis the people close by? No consultation..Shame on the government.