Construction drive produced unprecedented levels of construction waste, Farrugia says

Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia has admitted the Labour government's drive to encourage Malta's construction industry has created unprecedented levels of construction waste since 2013.

Farrugia was announcing a new strtategy for construction and demolition waste, which will be encompassed over 15 measures in four critical areas.

“We will be addressing the challenges that the waste industry faces in a holistic way. The strategy will serve as a cultural change for the sector, so that we will start looking at waste in a different way and change our attitude on and minimise construction waste,” said ERA deputy director Kevin Mercieca.

The first sector is design and planning, where measures will be addressing the waste problem at the sources. The second is the waste management sector, where specific measures will tackle and improve the logistics of waste separation.

Thirdly, the quality management sector, where higher standards on the way operations are conducted will be introduced. Finally, the regulatory entities, where new and specific legislation will be tabled.

Mercieca said that wherever waste can’t be eradicated, this will be recycled as part of the strategy for Malta’s circular economy.

Mercieca called the measures “ambitious”, as they will oversee an refinement in the classification of waste, the setting up of storage depots, old quarries will be restored and filled with clean material from the industry and new targets on waste recycling will be imposed on the industry.

Aaron Farrugia called the reforms, “much needed, sensitive and possibly controversial”.

“A third of all waste generated on a local and EU level is construction waste […] The government, since 2013, has created unprecedented levels of waste through the roads and infrastructure projects,” Farrugia said.

He mentioned the proposed tunnel between Malta and Gozo and the metro, that he said would present great waste challenges. “We have to recognise the limited size of our country and the limited void spaces. We have so far relied on the backfilling of the quarries. We want to improve the standards of the industry and training through reducing, reusing and recycling at the source,” Farrugia said.