Enough electricity to power 1,400 houses will soon start being produced from gases extracted from organic waste.

The electricity will come from two generators powered by the biogas produced in the last plant to be commissioned at the Sant’Antnin waste treatment plant in Marsascala.

The new plant, to be opened on November 26 by the Prime Minister, will be processing organic waste in large “digesters” and extracting the gas to turn out clean energy. What remains after the digestive process will be then used as compost.

Meanwhile, the heat generated during the process itself will not be left to waste. Work is under way to transfer it through tubes to the nearby Inspire building to heat its swimming pool. This, Wasteserv CEO Vince Magri said, would cost over €300,000 and was part of the company’s corporate social responsibility plan.

Resources Minister George Pullicino said the complete plant would be processing 71,000 tons of waste a year, a sizeable chunk of the 250,000 tons produced locally. But the country, he added, had to move to a zero-waste society, where waste was treated as a resource.

Addressing a press conference in the newly refurbished Wasteserv office block adjacent to the waste treatment plant, Mr Pullicino made it a point to say the plant was so safe and odour-free that Wasteserv would be moving all its 150 administrative and technical staff to the site, close to where waste was being treated. Previously, the block was used by the Water Services Corporation when the Sant’Antnin plant used to treat liquid waste.

The minister thanked the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin, which represents most of the workforce at Wasteserv, who had cooperated with the ministry over the move.

“One has to understand that because we’re speaking of new plants for this country, there was some fear of the unknown, but the UĦM walked hand in hand with us,” the minister said, adding that the union had been guaranteed that periodic tests would be carried out to see that everything was in order.

Meanwhile, the surrounding area, which between 1974 and 1979 was used as a landfill, is in the process of being turned into a family park five times bigger than the recently inaugurated Ta’ Qali adventure park. It will be accompanied by a visitor centre where people will be able see the waste treatment plant in action.

Other areas where there are plans to have parks are the disused Tal-Qortin and Magħtab landfills.

So far, €9 million have been spent on treating them, with a further €28 million yet to be spent. The new Sant’Antnin plant, on the other hand, will cost €26 million, €19 million of are from EU funds.

This, the minister said, should teach the country a lesson. “We’re spending this money to solve the problems caused in the past because we didn’t have these plants. What we have to learn is that it’s good to invest in plants such as this, because otherwise we’ll have to spend much more to atone for our environmental sins, as we’re doing now.”

The plant will be hosting an open day on November 27 and 28.

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