A call for tenders has been issued for the construction of a new waste treatment plant at Għallis that will process two-thirds of Malta’s municipal waste.

The project will support Malta’s efforts to comply with EU directives

The new waste treatment plant, close to the Għallis engineered landfill complex, will take 28 months to complete after the necessary permits are issued.

The call for tenders will remain open until February, with the successful bidder expected to be chosen by June.

WasteServ Malta’s chief projects manager, Robert Grech, said that the new facility, similar to the one already operational at Sant’Antnin, in Marsascala, was designed to treat municipal solid waste and manure from animal husbandry, mainly cattle.

The Sant’Antnin facility treats one-third of municipal waste generated by the Maltese islands with the new facility handling the rest.

It can handle a maximum of 76,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste, 47,000 tonnes of bulky waste and 39,000 tonnes of manure a year.

Called the Malta North Mechanical and Biological Treatment plant (MBT), the facility is a significant component of the National Waste Management Strategy.

The plant, expected to cost in excess of €40 million, will be co-financed by EU funds.

Mr Grech explained the project would have two distinct phases implemented independent of one another; the mechanical pre-treatment stage and the biological treatment stage.

The first includes two separate lines for mixed municipal waste and bulky waste. The other, based on wet anaerobic digestion technology, consists of one line that will treat the organic fraction of municipal waste and, eventually, manure.

Mr Grech said the project was expected to contribute significantly towards the efforts of the waste management system and for the country to fall in line with various European directives.

The new plant aims to minimise landfilling, in particular of biodegradable refuse, and increase waste treatment capacity for energy recovery and recycling purposes.

“The project will support Malta in its efforts to comply with EU directives on municipal solid waste management. Its objective is to help in reaching targets for the reduction of landfilling biodegradable municipal waste, as required by the EU Landfill Directive,” he said.

Malta is committed to cut biodegradable waste to 50 per cent of the 1995 levels by 2013 (70,679 tonnes) and to 35 per cent of the 1995 levels by 2020 (49,476 tonnes).

Although not a primary objective, the project will also increase the recovery of recyclable materials from waste and contribute to meeting recovery/recycling targets for packaging waste according to the EU Packaging Waste Directive.

The development tender includes earthmoving works, engineering design and the construction of the waste treatment plants along with landscaping and other ancillary infrastructure.

As with large projects, the tender will have a three-envelope system.

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