Race against time: new Maghtab 'hill' needed to avoid waste crisis

The Planning Authority is set to approve plans which give the country space to deposit 850,000 cubic metres of waste by increasing the height of the Għallis engineered landfill. In a race against time before a new incinerator starts functioning, this will give Malta a respite of an additional two years in preparing for the infrastructure to address the waste problem.

A Planning Authority case officer, recommending approval for the increased heights, describes “the limited void space” available at Għallis’s non-hazardous landfill as “the most significant waste management issue at the national level”.

The Magħtab landfill is the only disposal option for non-hazardous waste in a country where only 11% of waste is recycled and where most waste is landfilled in breach of EU targets set by the Landfill Directive.

It is estimated that the Għallis landfill currently has a remaining void space of circa 300,000 cubic metres. A previous permit to recontour the eastern side of Għallis approved in 2019 had already gained an additional 9 to 12 months of landfill void space, by adding its capacity by 315,000 cubic metres.

But the remaining landfill void “is expected to be filled rapidly, given current waste deposition rates”, the case officer’s report states.

The proposed development involves an increase in the vertical height of the landfill profile to augment its volume capacity. The aim is to create an increased void space of just under 850,000cb.m for disposal of waste by raising the landfill contours.

The availability of new void space is deemed essential to avoid a disruption of waste services. Moreover, the proposed increase in height of the landfill is considered as an alternative to the uptake of more land adjacent to the landfill.

The report refers to alternative disposal technologies such as the waste-to-energy plant, which is still under development.

“To allow for sufficient time to develop such alternative waste disposal options, obtain the required regulatory permits, and construct the required infrastructure, it is imperative that the lifetime of the Għallis landfill be extended as far as possible.”

In the absence of this, the incinerator will not be in place before available landfill void space is exhausted.

Moreover, the case officer warns that despite the introduction of alternative waste disposal facilities, a landfill will still be required for those waste streams for which there are no viable recovery or recycling options, and which are not suitable for thermal treatment via waste-to-energy.

The proposed development will not extend beyond the Għallis landfill outline set by previous permits, and shall not extend beyond the existing Magħtab boundary wall.

Missed targets

The emergency situation facing Malta is a result of decades of procrastination under different administrations on decisive steps to encourage waste separation and recycling, which made incineration unavoidable. But with the incinerator taking 40% of the country’s waste, bolder steps will still be required to increase recycling and re-use and decrease landfilling.

The latest Environmental Implementation Review (EIR) issued by the European Commission’s Directorate General for the Environment has expressed concern on Malta’s dismal track record on waste management in view of statistics showing the percentage of landfilled waste increase rather than decrease in the past few years.

Not only was Malta on course to miss its 2020 target to recycle 50% of its municipal waste and subsequent targets, but it has also seen a year-on-year increase in the weight of landfilled waste per capita.

Landfilled waste increased from 530kg/year/inhabitant in 2017 to 636kg/year/inhabitant in 2019. The material recycling rate also remains low, and actually decreased in that period from 74 kg/year/inhabitant to 62kg/year/inhabitant for the same years.

And while organic waste has been separately collected door-to-door since 2018 with an average of 25,750 tonnes collected in the last three years (2019- 2021), “its treatment does not qualify as recycling”. Presently organic waste is treated and used for lining the landfill.

A 2015 study by the EC investigating landfilling of untreated, non-hazardous, municipal solid waste had revealed treatment shortcomings at Għallis and that “substantive amounts of waste are landfilled without treatment.”

The reason for this was that there was not enough treatment capacity in the country to treat all the waste disposed of in the landfill sites.

In comparison with the EU averages for recycling and landfilling rates, Malta has made very limited progress over the past decade. The material recycling rate for municipal waste in 2019 was 9.9%, the same as in 2018 and below 11.1% in 2017. This is well below the EU average of 47.7 % (EU 2019) and shows insufficient improvement overall.

The report says these dismal records show that “there has been a deterioration in waste management in Malta, as the landfill rate has increased, and the recycling rate has decreased in the reported years.”

In view of this deterioration, Malta was urged by Brussels to introduce a ‘fiscal mechanism’ to discourage the landfilling of waste.

In its 2019 report, the Commission specifically called for an increase in taxes on landfilled waste. Now, the Commission is calling for the introduction of “progressive and effective instruments to curb the landfill rate.”

The Commission suggests that “revenues” from these instruments should finance “measures to improve waste management.”

The report notes the “limited progress” in the waste sector and calls for further action to ensure the collection and treatment of recyclable waste and introduce curbs on the disposal of recyclable waste in landfill sites.

It has noted the adoption of a new waste management plan, and Malta’s plans to increase its waste management capacity with new infrastructure to reduce dependency on landfilling. This is a reference to plans to construct a waste incinerator and organic waste processing plant at Magħtab.

But the report also calls for urgent reforms and investments in waste management and the circular economy to move away from heavy reliance on waste disposal in landfills.

“Malta needs to further capitalise on turning waste into resources, thus advancing its transition to a more circular economy,” the report says.