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James Debono
In another indication that incineration is on the government’s agenda Wasteserv chief executive Vince Magri told MaltaToday that “given our current constraints, every effort should also be made to recover as much energy from waste as possible.”
Magri was replying to MaltaToday on the solutions envisioned after 2013 when the Ghallis Landfill reduced seven-year lifespan expires.
Incineration is the most widely used technology to transform waste into energy although other options like gasification exist.
According to one of the scenarios envisaged in a report on renewable energy sources presented to Brussels last November, a waste combustion plant converting waste into energy will be operational in 2013, the year when Ghallis will stop operating.
Asked why the Environment Impact Assessment for the Ghallis landfill projects a seven-year lifespan instead of a 20-year lifespan as envisioned in previous plans, Vince Magri told MaltaToday that the government is concerned on the impact of the landfill on people’s lives and the countryside.
“For this reason, the Ghallis EIA is focusing on seven years of operations, instead of 20 years, for which Ghallis offers a potential.”
Magri says that the overall goal is to minimize the waste going to landfill and extending the facility’s lifetime beyond 2013. “Subsequent permissions will have to be sought if Ghallis will have to be extended further,” says Magri.
Another reason behind this decision is that the European Commission is increasingly adamant to see member states reduce their reliance on landfilling. The Commission has also imposed deadlines on Malta to pre-treat waste through an additional facility prior to landfilling.
“This alternative technology will be contemplated in the revised Solid Waste Management Strategy to be published for consultation shortly,” Magri told MaltaToday.
The development of the Ghallis landfill will involve the excavation of 1.2 million cubic meters of construction waste, the equivalent of a year’s supply of construction waste.
Wasteserv will be selling limestone excavated from Ghallis to private entrepreneurs. The tender, published on 25 November, 2005, closed before the Ghallis EIA was published for public consultation.
Asked whether the tender specified that this material is to be reused or recycled, Magri limited himself to saying that “no material transported off the site shall be rendered as waste.”
In the absence of recycling and reuse of construction waste, the amount of construction waste has kept increasing during the past years. In 2004 a record 2.2 million cubic metres of waste was dumped, more than in any year since 1996 despite targets in the 2001 Waste Management Plan which specify a reduction of 20 per cent from the construction waste levels of 2000 by the end of 2005.
This does not augur well for the reuse and recycling of a further 0.6 million cubic meters of waste which will be bought by the private sector. Asked whether the use of this material in land reclamation projects is being envisioned, Magri said that to date this option is not being considered.
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
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