The mountains of waste at Malta’s civic amenity sites are becoming a thing of the past as tons of thrown out fridges, boilers and other scrap are being shipped abroad for recycling. 

Earlier this year The Sunday Times of Malta reported on the “confusion and total mismanagement” of electronic waste accumulated at the sites across the island.

Piles of fridges, water heaters, computers and other domestic goods left little or no space to receive more electronic waste. In certain areas, vehicles entering the sites often found it difficult to manoeuvre, as the waste spilled onto vehicular passages.

More than 100 cars loaded with unwanted electronic equipment visit the bring-in sites every single day.

We have loaded around 15 trailers with bulky waste and sent it to Italy

Although the six sites across Malta and Gozo are run by WasteServ, private operators are responsible for ensuring the bulk of the waste at the sites is recycled. The operation is run by WEEE Malta. (WEEE stands for the EU’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Directive).

WEEE told The Sunday Times of Malta that more than 85 tonnes of waste had been shipped to Italy for recycling in the past two weeks in a bid to clear out the sites. “We faced some obstacles when it came to exporting this waste, but we finally came to an agreement with all the stakeholders and have loaded around 15 trailers with bulky waste and sent it to Italy in recent weeks,” a WEEE spokesman said. 

He said the Mrieħel site, Malta’s most popular civic amenity site, had nearly been cleared entirely.

The mountains of electronic waste are getting smaller