A new animal waste processing facility at Marsa, to cost approxiamately €12 million, will be completed in about six months and will help reduce Malta’s dependency on the Marsa incinerator.

The autoclave, as the plant is called, will also help reduce odours and pollution as well as energy and fuel consumption, having a positive effect on climate change, Environment Minister Leo Brincat said yesterday during a visit to the WasteServ facility.

“This is another important milestone for the company in its drive to improve and modernise the infrastructure for waste management in our country,” WasteServ’s CEO Tonio Montebello said. Works started in January and are expected to be completed in October.

The autoclave, which treats solid waste using high heat and steam pressure, is being built according to the latest technology and will serve as a backup and alternative treatment facility for the incinerator.

Although based in Malta, it will also treat animal waste from Gozo.

Mr Montebello explained that there would be substantial savings in fuel through the extraction of tallow (animal fat), which would be used in the incinerator as fuel.

This plant will treat animal by-products from the civil abattoir and private slaughterhouses amounting to around 6,000 tonnes a year.

Of these by-products, 307 tonnes will originate in Gozo.

Waste will be treated without odours released into the environment, and waste water will be reused instead of being disposed of in sewers without any pre-treatment. Energy released from the plant will also be used to produce hot water. “This project will also contribute towards achieving Malta’s commitment to reach the five per cent reduction on greenhouse gas emissions and the 10 per cent of the total energy consumption and generation of renewable energy resources,” Mr Montebello said.