An environmental expert has criticised the government's proposed €108 million investment in an incinerator at Delimara to deal with the annual increase in municipal solid waste, as outlined in the waste management strategy launched by the Resources Ministry last Friday.
Prof. Edward Mallia said the government had failed to tackle the reduction of waste at source: "The increased reliance on incineration was foreseeable. This is because the government has made no real effort to reduce the creation of waste. It is therefore inevitable that waste will increase and the most convenient way to deal with this is to burn it," Prof. Mallia said.
The municipal solid waste stream has increased by around 2.4 per cent annually since 2001. At the same time, the percentage of the waste stream that is separated for recycling remains low, according to figures presented in the strategy.
In spite of the fact that the amount of separated waste collected has increased annually since 2003, the total amount of separated waste collected from bring-in sites and the 'Recycle Tuesdays' initiative is estimated to yield just 5.7 per cent of the total waste stream generated by households.
The 'Recycle Tuesdays' initiative has so far managed to contribute to about 27.7 per cent of its statistical potential.
The vision that guides the new strategy, according to Resources Ministry permanent secretary Chris Ciantar is that "Malta builds upon a zero waste scenario whereby we reduce volumes of waste into the landfill, and in so doing recover value from the waste fractions generated in the form of renewable energy and recyclables."
'Zero Waste' is a concept that is being increasingly adopted around the world. According to the Zero Waste Alliance, a US-based partnership of universities, government, business and other organisations, "Zero Waste emulates sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are resources for others to use. Zero Waste means designing and managing products and processes to reduce the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources, and not burn or bury them."
Critics claim that reliance on incineration as part of a zero waste strategy is inconsistent. Moreover, this technology is related to concerns that focus on human health and environmental degradation. Prof. Mallia said the incineration of mixed waste creates cancer-causing substances including heavy metals and dioxins, which were classified as the most toxic man-made substances. In order to avoid their release into the air, an investment in capital intensive control measures, such as filters, is required.
However, any chemicals that are prevented from release into the atmosphere still appear in the ash, which is therefore considered to be toxic. This will have to be disposed in a hazardous waste landfill.
A part of the hazardous waste stream is already being diverted to the Marsa incinerator, together with abattoir waste. Prof. Mallia expressed concern that no information has been supplied on emissions from this plant: "Reassurances that the emissions meet EU standards should have ceased to be good enough a long time ago. The Aarhus Convention gives us the right to have the information, not assurances."
Prof. Mallia said that relying on waste for renewable energy may act as a disincentive to introduce alternative energy sources: "This is a serious temptation. Even if we ignore the harmful by-products of incineration, we are still faced with an increase in carbon dioxide emissions, which need to be reduced because of climate change."
According to the strategy, the incinerator will contribute to Malta's targets for renewable energy. Yet mixed waste incinerators are inefficient energy producers, capturing only around 20 per cent of the energy generated by waste.
According to the Zero Waste Trust, recycling plastic saves three to five times more energy, recycling paper saves two to four times more energy and recycling metal saves 30 to 888 times more energy than is gained through incineration. In fact, incinerators use more energy than they produce.
The waste management strategy launched for public consultation puts a strong emphasis on energy generation from waste. The aim is to produce five per cent of our renewable energy requirements from this source.
In addition to the energy expected from the incinerator, the aim is to capture the gas emitted from the Ghallis landfill and convert it to energy.
Energy would also be produced from an additional two pre-treatment plants planned at an investment of €55 million. One plant would be built adjacent to the Ghallis engineered landfill and the other would be located at Tal-Lewz in Gozo, between the councils of Sannat and Xewkija.
These plants are intended to reduce the amount of waste that is not being separated and recycled and therefore going to landfill (estimated at 150,000 tonnes). However, they also create their own waste.
The new plants at Ghallis and Gozo, together with the Sant Antnin plant in Marsascala, the captured gas at Ghallis landfill and the proposed incinerator, would generate half of Malta's renewable energy targets.
Asked whether this was a realistic estimate, Mr Ciantar said: "We are convinced we will achieve it."