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Dioxins and furans in our backyard

By our environment correspondent

The problem of waste management will never be solved by landfill management alone and incineration will have to serve as a major option.

The Maghtab dump probably produces more dioxins and furans, a group of very dangerous toxic chemicals, than a very badly managed incinerator.

This was revealed to MaltaToday by a foreign expert on waste management. But he added that Greenpeace Malta had managed to create hysterical opposition to incineration, based on emotive arguments.

"There is no perfect system for waste management and the call for a recycling programme is to be recommended, but Malta does not have the economies of scale and the culture to attain a high level of sustainable recycling,” the expert said. “All this talk of 3Rs by Greenpeace is nothing more than clichés. They should specify how the Maltese are expected to recycle all the products they consume."

He added that all the countries with high recycling programmes had opted for incineration as the lesser evil and in a place such as Malta and Gozo, where land space is a problem, proper, well-managed incineration is the solution.

The government has been petrified of confronting Greenpeace, but inside sources claim that the organisation is overestimated and has lost much of its clout internationally, after a spate of mistakes.

Lack of government resolve is workingto the advantage of those who dish out slogans.

In the meantime, the waste continues to pile up and burn at Maghtab and other landfill sites, in an uncontrollable way, leading to serious air pollution levels that are affecting hundreds of residents living in the vicinity.

Greenpeace Malta, acting in the shadow of their counterparts abroad, have always stated that incinerators lead to the emission of furans and dioxins, which can increase the risk of cancer and heart disease.

And a recent BBC programme quotes the British National Society for Clean Air (NSCA) as saying, "Dioxins and furans can be formed during the burning of any material containing carbon, where chlorine is also present. This includes coal burning, smoking, car exhausts and industrial processes, including incineration. These are very poisonous, and have been linked to cancer, so it is essential that incinerators operate at very high temperatures to reduce emissions to a minimum."

The NSCA said: "From a practical point of view, there is a huge amount of waste, and we're short of landfill sites.

"The amount of dioxins given off by a modern incinerator is very small, less than the pyres used for burning slaughtered foot-and-mouth animals.

"In our view, incineration is sometimes the best option."

As with most issues in Malta, such as the City Gate project and hunting, protests and opposition has left the government paralysed and unwittingly unable to take action. But in the meantime, the people around Maghtab in Naxxar, Gharghur, Bugibba, Swieqi and Ta’ l-Ibragg are the recipients of highly cancerogenic substances.