Malta has come a long way in waste management and its work in the field will take it to the top of the EU league, the Resources Ministry promised yesterday.

Last year the landfilling figure was sharply down to 59 per cent, with the rest being recycled

Christopher Ciantar, the ministry’s permanent secretary, acknowledged that there was a lot left to be done but said Malta had made a lot of progress in the field.

A dump like Magħtab, he said by way of example, was being turned into a national park.

His comments come in the wake of a European Commission survey that assessed the management of municipal waste within its member states – Malta was placed third from the bottom.

The island was criticised for being slow to meet EU standards although its efforts to improve were recognised.

But out of 18 criteria used to benchmark member states, Malta failed in 13. Landfilling and lack of recycling were identified as major problems.

The ministry pointed out that the scoreboard was based on 2010 figures, when 85 per cent of waste was being dumped in a landfill and 15 per cent recycled.

Last year, the landfilling figure was sharply down to 59 per cent with the rest being recycled.

This year so far, 57 per cent of waste was being dumped in a landfill and recycling took care of the remaining proportion, the ministry said.

It said that the government had invested in the upgrading of the Sant’Antnin Waste Recycling Plant and had opened five civic amenity sites which until December last year had recovered 85,000 tonnes of bulky refuse.