Bottlenecks in the exportation of electronic waste and illegal sale of white goods for metal parts are to blame for the current state of civic amenity sites that are morphing into junkyards.
Industry sources said that economies of scale and export costs are also hindering the so-called WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) schemes, which are administered by the environment authorities.
The schemes are meant to collect such waste as white goods, television sets, water heaters, computers and air conditioning units, which are then sent to recycling plants abroad, mostly in Italy.
There are only two authorised schemes at present, incorporating importers, producers and vendors who pay for the collection, treatment and recycling of the waste.
Times of Malta reported last week that most of the civic amenity sites operated by State agency Wasteserv had reached full capacity and were fast becoming an eyesore.
Asked for an explanation, an agency spokeswoman acknowledged that the facilities, where bulky refuse from households is disposed of, were becoming less user friendly due to the overstocking of WEEE. However, Wasteserv pointed its fingers at the Environment Resources Authority.
“It is important to note that it is the responsibility of the relevant schemes, permitted by ERA, to manage the disposal of this waste and, hence, its export effectively.
“Failure of these schemes to perform on a regular basis has led to the current situation where piles of this waste are being left to congest Wasteserv’s premises,” the spokeswoman said.
She added that Wasteserv was monitoring the health and safety risks at civic amenity sites and was seeking to mitigate the situation by exporting some of the waste directly.
There is no level playing field
The ERA admitted there might be situations whereby there could be an excess of stored WEEE pending export.
A spokesman said that, for the past month, the environment watchdog had engaged with Wasteserv and both WEEE schemes to find solutions.
Moreover, he said the ERA had also taken enforcement action where schemes were not attaining their targets. However, he declined to give further details.
Industry sources said that, by law, all bulky refuse collected by a local council’s contractor was sent to civic amenity sites, over and above items deposited there by private individuals. In turn, Wasteserv was obliged to hand over this waste to the two schemes according to their respective number of members.
However, the industry sources complained that one of the main problems they faced was that items containing highly-sought metal parts that attracted a good price on the market were never reaching civic amenity sites.
“It seems only fridges, freezers, television sets and neon tubes are being thrown away,” they added.
“In reality, cookers, washing machines and air conditioning units are being illegally dismantled and their metal parts sold on the black market for recycling,” the spokesman pointed out.
Consequently, WEEE schemes complain there is no level playing field. Furthermore, sources said Malta’s economies of scale meant they were, more often than not, at the mercy of Italian operators that treated certain white goods.
“Apart from being costly to export items like fridges, because they require hazardous waste containers of which there is a limited amount available, these cannot be sent abroad on a regular basis due to restrictions imposed by foreign plants,” the sources said.
They pointed out that the same could be said for traditional cathode ray tube found in TV sets as the glass screen was costly to treat due to the presence of lead.
“This is creating a bottleneck because the country lacks the sufficient capacity to export certain types of WEEE,” they noted.