European environmental organisations, together with materials and recycling industry groups, have called on the EU to exclude the incineration of waste that cannot be recycled from renewable energy targets.
In a letter to negotiators working on the EU’s revised renewable energy directive, the organisations call for support schemes for mixed-waste incineration to be “gradually phased out” and for waste-to-energy measures to “focus on energy from separately collected biowaste”.
They warn that the support schemes distort the waste market and “thus discourage the separate collection of organics and other recyclables that do not receive subsidies”. The organisations include representatives of the paper, furniture, bio-based chemical and panel industries, plastic and compost recyclers, and leading NGOs on environment, forestry, transport and waste.
Malta is investing heavily in waste-to-energy as a long-term alternative to the unsustainable reliance on landfills.
In February, the government announced the construction of a new €150 million plant in Magħtab, scheduled for completion by 2023. It will process 40 per cent of Malta’s waste, with the rest recycled in line with the country’s 60 per cent target.
Recycling currently stands at 7.6 per cent, while landfilled waste is dropping steadily but still accounts for 92 per cent of treated waste, according to recent NSO figures.
Malta also has one of the highest levels of waste generation in the EU – around 642 kilos per person per year.
Plans for the new incineration plant are expected to run parallel to increased recycling measures, with the government announcing legislation to enforce mandatory waste separation for households and businesses, together with a new enforcement unit within the environment authority.
Moreover, a public consultation on a new return scheme for plastic bottles was launched last week, with the stated goal of recovering 70 per cent of used bottles as of next year.
Under the EU Waste Framework Directive, incineration is just above landfilling – below reducing, reusing and recycling – in the ‘waste hierarchy’.
However, as things stand, burning waste can also be eligible for subsidies under the renewable energy scheme.
Environmental campaigners say this discourages recycling efforts and creates a demand for generated waste to keep the incinerators running.
A 2017 report by the European Environment Agency found that several member states, including Sweden, Denmark and Estonia, had reached incineration overcapacity, a waste shortage which campaigners say effectively puts a cap on recycling.
The report produced by the Maltese government’s waste-to-energy committee on the new plant indicated that a smaller sized plant was chosen to avoid a temptation to relax recycling commitments.