New construction-waste dumping fee of €8 will be enforced from next week

In an agreement between the Malta Developers Association and the Environment Minister, a fixed dumping fee of €8 for every tonne of waste dumped in quarries will be enforced for the next one and a half years.

The MDA have met with Minister José Herrera asking for more quarries to be opened for the purpose of dumping construction waste.

This comes after Herrera confirmed that there were plenty of quarries on the island for this purpose at an Environment and Development Planning Committee meeting.

However, only a handful of the 32 quarries licensed to receive construction waste are actually doing so, leading the operators to make a killing from higher dumping fees.

For this reason, Herrera announced a fixed fee of no more than €8 for every tonne of waste dumped in quarries.

"This is so that the price becomes stabilised and the economy is not discouraged by unjustified prices. From next Monday, the price remains fixed and I will use all the measures allowed to me by law for a genuine cooperation with quarry operators," Herrera said.

The environment minister met with MDA on Saturday in an attempt to come to a solution for construction waste, an issue that made the rounds in the media this week.

MDA President Sandro Chetcuti said that an agreement had also been reached with the minister so that the opening hours of quarries will now be extended from 6:30am to 3:45pm.