GOING BEYOND EXISTING AND FORESEEABLE STANDARDS IN THE MANAGEMENT AND DISPOSAL OF SOLID WASTE

The Minister for the Environment stressed that Proposers for the Development and Operation of an Integrated System for the Receipt, Management, Treatment, Processing and Disposal of Solid Waste in Malta are to ensure that all practices conform to, and even aim to go beyond existing and foreseeable Standards and Legislation both in a local context as well as with respect to all relevant Directives and Regulations of the European Union.

The Minister for the Environment, who was replying to a news release by Greenpeace Mediterranean about Government's Call for Proposals for an Integrated Solid Waste Management Project, said that contrary to Greenpeace allegation that the authorities were weak, this condition showed that the present administration was putting as its first priority an environmentally friendly project.

The Minister stressed that in its intentions to enter a Contractual Agreement, Government outlined a Waste Hierarchy principle based on

1. Reduction

2. Reuse

3. Recyling

4. Composting

5. Material Recovery

6. Energy Recovery

7. Disposal

The Minister for the Environment noted that Government is interested in energy recovery without incineration and that incineration is the last option. Hence in a competitive tender procedure, as is to be expected that this option will in fact be discarded since Government has declared upfront that it will give preference to environmentally friendly conditions.

The contract clearly provides as follows:

1. All systems and facilities shall have appropriate plant and equipment to monitor and control all processes in order to ensure that environmental and operational best practice is achieved. The successful Proposer shall take the necessary steps to ensure that such performance standards are kept at all times and shall take the necessary steps to ensure that improvements, where necessary or where required by legislation, are immediately incorporated whilst maintaining continuity of service.

2. In particular, Proposers are to ensure and demonstrate a priori that the systems and the processes they propose will not have any unacceptable impact from emissions, whether in the form of noxious gases to the atmosphere, in the form of objectionable odour to the surrounding population or in the form of other adverse impacts on the ecological systems and the surrounding environment.

Referring to a massive public awareness campaign that will educate the public on waste disposal the Ministry quoted from the Contract Proposal which stresses that the successful contractor shall upon entering a Contractual Agreement with Government, bind himself to fulfill the additional Contractual Commitment for a Public Education and Awareness Campaign and corresponding surveys. The successful contactor shall launch a Public Education and Awareness Campaign aimed at educating the public, bringing about a better appreciation of the waste problem. The campaign shall encourage the understanding and adoption of "reduce, reuse and recycle" approach by the public that should also lead to the eventual implementation of the ‘separate at source' system. This campaign shall be an ongoing process throughout the entire Contractual period and shall make use of all existing communication and media facilities.

Moreover the Contractual Proposal states that the following sectors should be targeted in this campaign:

1. The Domestic Sector

2. Schools and other educational Institutions

3. Government establishments, Local Councils and Parastatal Organisations

4. The Business, the Production and Service Industry

5. The Retail and Trade Sectors

6. The Building Construction Industry

7. The Farming and Fishing sectors

8. The Tourism, Catering and Entertaining Industry

The proposals for the strategy to be adopted for this campaign shall be included in the Proposal submissions. Government will still reserve the right to approve of the contents and modality of the campaign. This proves that Government intends to be involved not only in the planning and implementation stages of the project but also in the awareness campaign.

The Ministry for the Environment said it is not after praise, but after doing whatever is necessary to resolve the waste management problems in this country. Government is determined to provide the best environmentally friendly project for the waste management of these islands because the Maltese deserve nothing but the best.