Malta is losing out by not burning its waste to generate energy, a report by the Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants shows.
CEWEP represents and coordinates the interests of waste-to-energy plants and is an influential lobby group within the EU. It influences and helps create EU environmental legislation in this field and strives to explain to the public and political sector the high technical standard of waste-to-energy plants and their environmental advantages.
A report by CEWEP, seen by The Times, shows that waste-to-energy plants are complementary to recycling plants in Europe. Beside being very hygienic, they turn waste into, and thus substitute, fossil fuels.
The report brings together findings from around 70 studies comparing the environmental profile of different waste management techniques.
All studies show that landfilling is the worst environmental option.
About 30 million tonnes of wastes are treated annually in the waste-to-energy plants represented by CEWEP across Europe, and by substituting fossil fuels, such as natural gas and oil, they also save on carbon dioxide emissions.
Although Wasteserv, the government's waste management agency, has been introducing a waste management policy where none existed before, and attempts are being made to separate waste and recycle some of it, landfilling is still seen as the short-term solution.
In its report, CEWEP says that waste incineration does not inhibit recycling. "This is most proven by member states with high incineration rates like Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland, where recycling levels are also amongst the highest in Europe. Low incineration rates go hand in hand with low recycling standards," the report states.
"Waste-to-energy plants are environmentally sound energy recovery operations and complementary to the recycling plants in Europe," it adds.
In many EU countries, energy recovery in waste-to-energy plants are connected to recycling installations, which recover the residual waste from recycling procedures.
"One is complementary to the other. For reasons of sustainability it is preferable that recycling residues go to incineration plants instead of landfills," the report states.
Waste-to-energy plants are equipped with efficient flue gas cleaning systems which allow them to reach very low emission levels, sometimes several times lower than required by the EU waste incineration directive.