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Julian Manduca
The Environment Impact Assessment for the new abattoir incinerator at Marsa could not be clearer when it states that its purpose is to “process abattoir and various food-derived waste streams, totalling in the order of 11,000 tonnes per year.”
But not all is clear about the matter, as the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment has told MaltaToday that the types of waste to be incinerated would be “fallen animals, pet animals, abattoir waste, processing waste and waste from butcher shops.” It remains unclear what the ‘various food-derived waste streams’ will be.
Even stranger, according to a ministry spokesperson, is that the expected animal waste will be 35 tonnes daily, which would work out to about 9,000 tonnes yearly if one calculates only working days, but that is well higher than the figure in the waste management strategy which was a mere 2,500 tonnes yearly in 2000.
On 25 November during a press briefing Dr Lino Vella, director-general at the Food and Veterinary Division, had said that around three tonnes of carcasses are incinerated daily at Marsa using renewable energy, a far cry from the 35 tonnes the ministry is now claiming. When MaltaToday asked the ministry for the environment for an explanation all that was forthcoming was: “since the waste management strategy was discussed, a new Directive which defines different categories of waste and their method of disposal has been published, hence the increase.”
This newspaper is informed that since EU membership the volume of animal waste being produced in Malta has decreased, but the ministry spokesperson said it has remained the same.
“The consumption of beef and pork has been slightly affected whereas poultry meat appears to have been affected, by EU membership. It is not expected that there would be less volume of waste as animal waste from imported meats has increased slightly,” the spokesperson said.
According to the environment ministry animal waste is currently being incinerated in a mobile incinerator, but about 500 tonnes per month, mostly parts of slaughtered animals not intended for human consumption, goes to the Ta Zwejra landfill.
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