The Mepa board this afternoon approved the building of a waste recycling plant at Maghtab which will handle almost three times as much waste as the Sant'Antnin plant.
The project was approved with 10 votes in favour to one against after a long and occasionally tense meeting.
Board member Alex Vella, who represents environmental organizations, was the only one to vote against the plans.
The facility will cater for 186,000 tonnes of waste per year.
Residents are opposed to the facility, which will be built next to the existing landfill.
Wasteserv said the facility will be divided into two plants: a section that will handle 47,000 tonnes of dry recyclable waste and the bigger part that will convert organic waste and manure into compost.
The compost plant will receive 100,000 tonnes of domestic waste per year, 35,000 tonnes of cattle manure and 4,000 tonnes of chicken manure. It will also produce gas that will be used to produce electricity.
Malta is obliged by EU directives to recycle at least 50 per cent of all waste generated by 2020, a target that will not be met unless the Sant Antnin plant is supplanted by other recycling facilities.
John Portelli, a representative of Maghtab residents, called on the board to adopt "common sense", claiming the applicant had misled them on a number of issues.
Mr Portelli said he could not understand why the health impact assessment was waived, adding the designated area was primarily agricultural land that contained rich archaeological remains.
Charles Sciberras, who owns agricultural land in Ghallis, accused Wasteserv of failing to consult residents like himself. Mr Sciberras's family is set to lose more land to make way for this facility.
In an impassioned intervention, he said if Wasteserv wanted to take his farm, it had to take him as well. "That is where I will die, they want to kill us of hunger."
Board member Victor Axiak, a biologist and University lecturer, asked why no studies were conducted to evaluate the impact of the plant on animal husbandry in the area and whether it would create more pest-control problems.
The reply was that these studies were not recommended by the planning authority's Environment Protection Directorate.
Prof. Axiak asked for a number of clarifications, noting some mistakes in the report by Wasteserv's consultants.
At one point, Prof. Axiak regretted the fact that the area was already "condemned" by the presence of a landfill.
MEPA chairman Vince Cassar chided Wasteserv for allowing waste trucks to pass through Maghtab village and insisted this had to be corrected from "tomorrow".
Board member Ryan Callus, the Nationalist Party representative, reminded fellow board members that Malta had EU targets to reach by 2020 on recycling.
Mr Callus said failure to build this plant would mean the engineered landfill would have to be extended in the future, taking up more virgin land.
"The recycling plant will reduce the amount of waste that needs to be land filled and it will help reduce the impact on residents in the area," he said.
In a strong reaction to Mr Callus's comments, Mr Sciberras said he would be the first one in Malta to "tie explosives" around his waist and "blow himself up along with the farmhouse" when Wasteserv came to take it. He claimed he was never compensated for 40 tumolo of land that was taken from him for the extension of the landfill.
Wasteserv insisted the project, which will be co-financed by the EU, had tight time frames to respect so as not to lose the funds.
Responding to the concern raised by board member Alex Vella over why the plant was not being built on land already disturbed by the Maghtab landfill, Wasteserv said it was not appropriate to build on a landfill that had not yet been fully rehabilitated.
The project was then approved.