A large site in Iklin that hosts tarmac batching plants and private bitumen storage facilities is being used by the government’s waste management company as a storage facility for electronic waste.

Sources close to Wasteserv, which falls under the responsibility of Environment Minister José Hererra, said that the government has rented out storage space at Bitmac Ltd to store electronic waste from civic amenity sites.

A €1 million contract was awarded to Bitmac Ltd without a call for tender. Bitmac is owned by three major companies involved in road construction.

“It is very odd that such waste is to be stored on site of a batching plant with all the possible vulnerabilities that such a site offers,” sources said.

“Large storage tanks of flammable bitumen are located on this site. Although an incident related to electronic waste is not common, one would not recommend storing such waste in an area where tarmac and bitumen are held,” they added.

READ: Overflowing civic amenity sites

No Planning Authority permit has been issued yet, but Wasteserv has already started transferring fridges, freezers and all kinds of electronic waste from its bulging civic amenity sites.

“Truckloads of electronic waste are being dumped in the site without a plan. Another dumping site, far from people’s view, is being created,” the sources said.

Asked to state if this operation is covered by permits, a spokesman for Wasteserv said that an environmental permit was issued by ERA but he refrained from giving details on the necessary planning permit.

According to Wasteserv, the facility at Iklin will only be use for three years, until a Multi-Material Recovery Facility in Ħal-Far is built.

The latter facility has been in the pipeline for a number of year. Its aim is to act as a holding house for material earmarked for recycling.

“Since it is expected that the new Ħal-Far facility will take two to three years to be completed, Wasteserv leased premises in the interim from the private sector through a negotiated procedure,” the spokesman said to justify the rental of the Bitmac batching plant premises.

Following questions on this issue by Nationalist Party MP Chris Said, Dr Herrera told Parliament that the new storage facility was hired from V&C Contractors for €318,000 a year for the next three years.

Wasteserv has been under pressure as its civic amenity sites were transformed into heaps of uncontrolled waste due to mismanagement and lack of exports.

The mayor of Iklin has requested a meeting with Dr Herrera to discuss the matter.