Updated | Waste separation system intentionally set up to fail to justify incinerator, PN MP insists

The Opposition’s environment spokesperson Jason Azzopardi has accused the government of intentional setting its new waste separation system up to fail so that it could justify building a waste incinerator.

Azzopardi was speaking in Parliament, as it discussed the Environment ministry’s budget allocation for 2019, where he said the government had not even succeeded in properly informing people on the new system’s details.

The roll out of the new system was plagued by mistakes, with notices being published that had clearly not been proofread, and which did not even include collection times.

Turning to the tender for the distribution of organic waste bins in Maltese households, Azzopardi said that according to the government’s own tender document, the bins were to be distributed within a three-month period, something he said had not happened.

Azzopardi said the chosen operator had given up on fulfilling this part of the agreement and had instead chosen to “delegate the job to girl guides and boy scouts”.

He questioned, whether the government would now penalise the operator according to the tender’s conditions. Azzopardi also accused the government of insisting on the three-month period with all bidders in order to ensure that all but the government’s preferred bidder would give up.

Azzopardi acknowledged that it was one’s civic duty to separate their waste, but insisted that it was disheartening for people to see videos on social media showing waste collectors disposing of white and black bags in the same truck.

Turning what he referred to as the “compost lie”, Azzopardi said that while the government had said that it would be collecting organic waste because the country needed compost, this was not the case.

“It’s not true,” he insisted, saying that Malta had roughly 8,000 hectares of soil. “Can the minister explain where the hell this compost is going to go?”

The PN MP insisted that the Sant’ Antnin waste separation facility’s digester could only take 35,000 tons of organic waste, at least half what the country was generating.

Emissions failings costing taxpayer €1.4 million a year

Citing a European Commission progress report on emissions, Azzopardi underscored the fact that Malta was not reaching its targets. He said despite claims that the new power station was needed to reduce such emissions, the reality was that Malta had exceeded its targets every year since 2013. 

“We are paying fines because of the government’s incompetence,” he said.

Of the EU’s 28 member states, Azzopardi said Malta was the only country that had to pay “to be allowed to pollute more than it was allowed to”.

Azzopardi insisted that that while the government had claimed that nothing had been taken from the nation in the budget, in reality taxpayer money was being spent to make up for a lack of progress controlling emissions. “What is this minister, a trick or a treat?”

Malta, he said, had agreed to pay Bulgaria an average of €1.4 million a year over a seven-year period to make up for the fact that it was not able to reduce its emissions. The agreement, he said, had been signed in secret.

Azzopardi said that despite what the government said, the budget had only included three pages on the environment, with most measures having already been proposed in past budgets.

PN agreed to unrealistic emissions targets in 2012 - Herrera

Replying to Azzopardi and Herrera said it was clear that the PN MP was either unprepared or was being advised by people who weren’t well informed 

On the emissions targets mentioned by Azzopardi, Herrera said one needed to, first and foremost, distinguish between emissions from power stations and that generated by the burning of fossil fuels, like emissions from vehicles.

Environment minister Jose Herrera said that despite the PN's criticism, previous Nationalist administrations had done very little to promote waste separation

He noted that the present targets had been agreed upon by the last Nationalist administration, which he said had negotiated targets that ignored the country’s realities. The PN, he said, already knew in 2012 that the country would need to pay for missing the targets it had negotiated.

Contrary to what Azzopardi had said, Herrera said that emissions from Malta’s power stations had indeed dropped since 2013, and was now below the European average.

Herrera did not deny that Malta was paying Bulgaria an average of €180,000 a year for missing its emissions targets, but stressed that this was the was the reason for the government deciding there would be a cut-off date after which cars that burn fossil fuels would be banned.

The government was aware of the problem, he said, but it also understood that it could not simply ban cars overnight.

Malta now has a waste management plan

Turning to the government’s new waste management system, Herrera said that of the 150,000 tons of organic waste generated in Malta, it was only 70,000 that was compostable, with the remaineder consisting of material like cardboard and wood, which could not be composted.

He said that this would leave some 70,000 tons of compostable waste, which would put Malta’s 35,000-ton capacity roughly in line with Malta’s targets of achieving composting 65% of this waste. The rest would be burnt in the incinerator, he said. 

Herrera insisted that Malta had gone from a country without a waste management plan to one that was now thinking seriously about how it could separate its waste in an effective and sustainable manner.

This, he said, included the separation of organic waste, which, rather than continuing to be dumped in a landfill would now be used to create compost and energy.

He accused the Opposition of attempting to derail the government’s efforts to ensure a sustainable waste management solution and of abdicating on its responsibility to contribute to efforts to open a waste-to-energy incinerator.

Herrera stressed that the government had allocated some €54 million to waste management, adding that the government’s policy in the sector reflected what the nation was asking for.

The present administration, he said, was implementing measures aimed at building a true circular economy, with new markets being sought to dispose of the waste generated in the country.

One such scheme was the planned bottle recycling scheme, which Herrera said would be contributing to a reduction in plastic waste finding its way into the environment.

On the Planning Authority’s fuel station policy, which was mentioned by PN MP Marthese Portelli, Herrera said he had explained on many occasions that he did not have the power to order the PA to stop processing fuel station applications, adding that he had been the minister that asked the Environment and Resources Authority to review the policy.