SPEECH BY THE MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Speech by the Minister for the Environment Francis Zammit Dimech at the opening session of the Conference on Waste Management Solutions, organised by the Malta Institute of Waste Management, at the New Dolmen Hotel, Bu'ibba, on Tuesday, 4 April 2000.

It is a pleasure for me to address this conference on waste management. Over the past months waste management has been a topic of much discussion and since the publication of the consultation document on solid waste management, the problem of waste management has been given even more importance and the topic has become a subject of discussion.

Waste management is a high priority on the Government's agenda and the Government is committed to find a proper solution to manage waste properly. It is important to realise that waste management is an important and necessary subject if we want to safeguard our own health and the environment. It is a subject that has been neglected for many years and we have now reached an unsustainable state in our waste management facilities.

Government recognises that uncontrolled and unmanaged waste is a threat to both our health and the environment and that a marked change is needed in the way we think about and manage waste. Recognising that waste is a potential resource is a key step towards the attainment of sustainable development.

Waste is a growing problem as waste quantities are increasing from year to year, due to social and economic progress as well as technological and industrial progress. Proper waste management should be a key priority task if we are to make further progress towards sustainable development.

Feedback on the Plan just published is being received and the plan is open for discussion until 28 April 2000. The siting of a new ‘engineered landfill' has in fact been one of the main topics of discussion. Irrespective of what would be the ideal site for such a landfill, one must keep in mind that an engineered landfill is very different to the landfills or land raising we know today. What we term today as the Magħtab landfill is a misnomer. It is important to say that whether we like it or not a landfill remains a necessary evil in every waste management plan no matter what management policies, solutions and options we adopt.

What the Government is proposing is not an extension of the Magħtab mountain. Magħtab as we know it today shall be closed down and rehabilitated. One must keep in mind that Magħtab cannot be moved and dumped elsewhere and all our efforts should now be directed towards proper rehabilitation to rectify the mistakes we made in the past. In fact studies have already been made by an Italian Institute regarding the rehabilitation of Magħtab. Once rehabilitated, Magħtab shall be changed into a recreational facility.

Government's main aim, however, is to direct less waste to the present or newly established engineered landfill. Primarily, we should aim at directing construction and demolition waste away from public landfills. The Plan therefore provides schemes and incentives to direct construction and demolition waste away from public landfills. This waste stream can be used to rehabilitate unused quarries or to carry out land reclamation or sea reclamation projects.

Therefore one should keep in mind that any newly established landfill shall be dealing with much less quantities of waste. Currently we are landfilling around 1.2 million tonnes of waste. By eliminating construction and demolition waste we are left with around 250,000 tonnes of waste that is destined for landfill. However, we are also aiming at reducing the amount of biodegradable municipal solid waste landfilled by improving treatment options.

The Sant'Antnin composting plant has a designed throughput of 80,000 tonnes and right now only 25,000 tonnes are being treated. By increasing the throughput of Sant'Antnin our landfill shall have to deal with even less waste of biodegradable nature. This would mean that odour emissions from the new landfill shall be minimal and besides the new landfill shall also have special equipment to control and treat any gas emissions that may occur.

Government is also planning to privatise the Sant'Antnin composting plant so that the plant is linked to a commercial activity and to financial achievements and targets rather than being run simply as a normal Government Department. In fact the Government is also considering an integrated package possibly financed by the private sector.

There are various challenges that need to be faced and various targets that need to be achieved. The Plan sets targets close to those set by other European countries so that Malta would align itself with European standards. The Plan that the Government published has been only the first step. It is now important that we receive your feedback so that the Plan becomes reality and we start to implement the recommendations in the light of the consultations exercise that would have been carried out.