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Your letters
Answer
my questions please
From Julian Manduca, Coordinator FoE Malta
I must admit
to be more than disappointed. A few weeks ago MT printed a front
page article quoting a foreign expert on what kind of waste management
was best for Malta. The 'expert' said that Malta needs an incinerator.
When I replied and asked for the expert to be named and for some
reasoning to back up the arguments, none were forthcoming.
I asked MT
to explain, with reference to facts and figures, the reasons why
Malta needs an incinerator.
In answer
to my question MT replied that it believes that recycling is not
possible in Malta and that it is not viable to export waste for
recycling.
For once,
MT try and answer these questions with reference to facts and
figures. What makes you so sure that exporting waste for recycling
is not a viable possibility? Have you investigated the possibilities?
Friends of
the Earth (Malta), for one, have met a business person who is
actively collecting waste – plastics of all kinds –
for recycling abroad and both of them have told us that they have
found markets for the waste. The person collecting plastics is
having problems with where to store the waste in Malta, but has
told us that finding buyers is no problem.
Even if the
recycling of waste were not to be commercially viable this does
not necessarily mean that incineration is the best alternative.
If we are to speak about costs then the only exercise that is
viable is this: compare the costs and advantages of incineration
with the costs and advantages of recycling even if our waste is
to be sold at a cheap price.
We are convinced
that recycling will come out better than incineration. It would
be necessary to consider all factors including: costs, employment,
impact on waste reduction etc. As MT continues to point out, Malta's
big problem today is contamination: Maghtab should have been closed
down years ago. We have been saying this for years. But compare
what our situation would be like as regards contamination with
the two alternatives: incineration and recycling abroad.
Moviment
ghall-Ambjent, Friends of the Earth (Malta) opposes incineration
for the following reasons:
• It
destroys valuable resources.
• It
undermines recycling schemes by demanding long-term waste delivery.
Because it takes 15-25 years for a waste management company to
make a return on their capital investment, the contract between
a local council and a waste management company requires the council
to provide an agreed amount of waste for at least 25 years.
• It
produces emission of particulates, heavy metals and dioxins, all
of which are potentially dangerous to human health.
• It
produces toxic ash which still has to be landfilled.
• It
exacerbates climate change because when materials are burned,
more fossil fuel energy is used to replace the products through
mining, manufacturing, and transportation around the world. Energy
from burning waste is not renewable.
• It
offers very few jobs. The recycling industry however offers enormous
potential for substantial job creation.
• It
is a much more capital-intensive and costly approach than recycling.
• It
creates more noise and traffic. Incinerators can also be regarded
as eyesores.
• It
will require a constant volume of waste, something that Malta
might not be able to offer in view of our tourism industry.
Friends of
the Earth (Malta) has always pushed for steps to start managing
waste properly and the Malta government could have started years
ago. It has always been the politicians and civil servants that
have procrastinated. But, when we do make a choice we had better
take the right one, because the long term impacts of a wrong decision
could be with us for centuries. In the light of all the reports
about air pollution, it would seem that recycling abroad is a
much more sensible solution than incineration.
El dictator at Cottonera
Frank
Theuma, Bormla
After seeing
those photographs covering the opening of the Vittoriosa Casino
di Venezia in the local papers, I could only think of one tiny
chapter in the great book of world history namely, that of El
Dictator Capitalista Fulgencio Batista of Cuba.
At the time,
Havana was full of gambling casinos, a playground for the rich
and famous, while the majority of Cubans were suffering poverty
and hunger. The rest of the story involving Fidel Castro and the
Revolution is well known by one and all.
The question
remains: How will Malta's story unfold?
Dissociating
ourselves
Aldo Bonello,
KB (Real Estate) Ltd
We would
like to disassociate ourselves with your front page article on
'Shameless Real Estate Agents Buying Property' to sell to clients.
We have never
been involved in speculation and have never purchased any property
to sell to clients – we are regular estate agents.
Over 35 years
KB has earned a reputation for honesty and integrity and most
of our clients have become our friends once they have sampled
their first experience with us.
The
camel and the tent
From Carmelo
Micallef
Further to Mr Sultana’s contribution in Maltatoday (29/07/01)
I am very surprised that Mr Sultana does not know the history
of the Sudan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Bosnia-Kosovo, East
Timor, The Philippines and Indonesia. My policy is "prevention
is better than cure" and do not want Malta to become another
war-torn Lebanon or Bosnia.
In my letter
I would like to bring to the attention of the reader what kind
of situation we shall be facing in 20 or 30 years’ time.
Future Maltese generations must not live in an Ex-Yugoslavia style
Malta.
I would like
to use this story taken from ‘Arabian Nights’ to illustrate
what could happen to Malta if we are not careful.
A Bedouin
put up his tent for the night in the desert and went off to sleep.
Half an hour
later his camel woke him up and asked if it could put its head
in the tent because it was cold. The owner acceded to the camel’s
request. Some time later the camel asked his owner if he could
bring his hump in as it was cold. He accepted.
An hour later
the camel told him that his feet were cold and that he wished
to put them in the tent also. The camel’s owner accepted
the camel’s third request.
This was
the breaking point because the camel occupied the whole tent and
its owner had to sleep outside his own tent!
I bet the
camel was eternally grateful to his owner for being so tolerant.
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