Model island for waste management

While on a recent business trip, I came across a BBC news item focusing on the effective waste management in the Isle of Wight.

The UK island, bigger than Malta by just 85km/s, and having a third of our population, uses gasification technology to turn municipal solid waste into power, bringing it closer to energy independence from the UK mainland.

The island is the first location in the UK to obtain and operate a municipal solid-waste-to-energy plant using advanced thermal conversion technology, making residents no longer completely reliant on the mainland for their energy.

In operation since February 2009, the gasification technology generates 2.3 megawatts of electricity, enough to power up to 3,000 homes.

The plant is designed to run on 30,000 tons of fuel annually, produced from 60,000 to 70,000 tons of waste. The biomass plant runs alongside the Isle of Wight Council's Resource and Recovery Facility in Newport, where the waste is processed. The plant cost the council £8 million.

The company selected for the provision of the plant has municipal solid-waste-to-energy plants operating in Norway and Germany using the same technology, with a total of more than 300,000 operational hours.

Coming back to our little islands, according to the NSO press release of January 2009 on solid waste management in Malta, the island disposed of 177K tonnes of municipal waste and 67k tonnes of mixed municipal waste into our public landfills. When comparing these statistics with the data published for the Isle of Wight gasification plant, we produce enough waste to have not one but two or three of these plants.

Further research led me to the Proposal for An Energy Policy for Malta (April 2009) compiled by the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs, which states that Wasteserv would be adopting similar technology by using the waste separated within the Sant' Antnin waste management site/plant. Nevertheless, WasteServ's website indicates that the separated waste usage for the combined heat and power plant would be nearly one third of the total municipal waste collected and generating approximately half of the electricity produced by the gasification plant used on the Isle of Wight.

Furthermore, there is no indication as to when this combined heat and power plant will start operating.

An article published on www.mrw.co.uk by Liz Gyekye titled Waste And Recycling Plant Bring £78m To Green Economy In London (March 31) explains how the mayor of London plans to build waste and recycling plants which could bring more than 1,000 jobs and contribute £78 million a year to the capital's economy, according to a report Prospectus for London, the Low Carbon Capital (March 27) by Ernst and Young. The report outlines for the first time the economic boost and job opportunities for London and the UK if it positions itself at the forefront of the low carbon economy. It covers the plans to roll out "significant waste plants across London using proven waste technology to facilitate the conversion of organic waste to input renewable power to the London grid (gasification and anaerobic digestion)". The report says that additional sustainable revenue streams could be created through sale of recyclate and fertiliser to industry and agriculture.

Would such focus on renewable energy prove to be viable to Malta? We would never know unless concrete efforts are made by all members of society - from the central to local administrations, the servicing industry and ultimately the individual households. It would be a dream knowing that part of our energy is being produced from our separated waste.