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6 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 4 MARCH 2020 NEWS ANALYSIS JAMES DEBONO A new incinerator projected to take 40% of Malta's household waste will only be up and run- ning in 2026. But the current space for landfilling at Magħtab can only accommodate house- hold waste up until till 2021. That means that there is a five- year gap in the government's waste plans, which was never previously accounted for. In fact, back in 2018 the gov- ernment projected that the waste-to-energy facility would be up and running by 2023. But government sources now believe that 2026 is a more realistic tar- get. That is why government has to expand the landfill at Magħtab, otherwise Malta will face a waste emergency with basically no- where to dump its black bags left on kerbs by households. Malta would risk having waste piling up along the roads as happened some time ago in Naples, Italy. Sources say that although the government has terminated agri- cultural leases over 250,000sq.m of land (the area of 35 football grounds), the landfill extension will be taking around 50,000sq.m (an area the size of eight football grounds). But a further 100,000sq.m will be taken up by the incinerator, a multi-recovery facility plant, an organic treatment plant and 'space for stockpiling'. According to initial studies presented in a Project Develop- ment Statement in 2018, the new incinerator alone will require 20,000sq.m of land. Presently Magħtab already houses the Malta North Me- chanical and Biological Treat- ment Plant, which is similar to the one in Marsaskala, which the government plans relocating to Magħtab. This relocation will give respite to the southern lo- cality, which has to contend with a recycling plant located next to residential areas. Moreover, having all waste facilities in one location would result in more efficient management of these facilities. But locating all waste facilities at Magħtab along with the land- fill expansion, will come at a cost: the loss of more agricultural land in the north and increased pres- sure on this area. So as often happens the belea- guered agricultural sector will be expected to pay the price. As Green Party chairperson Carmel Cacopardo asked: "Is it fair – or even ethical – for one section of the population to be expected to bear the brunt of impacts to which each one of us contributes? Should the burden not be spread, thereby ensuring that all communities shoulder part of it?" Questions have also been raised on mineral deposits presently found under the Magħtab fields. The PA's Mineral Subject Plan does identify significant lower coralline deposits (zonqor), in this area. This inevitably raises concern on whether the landfill expansion into agricultural land will eventually pave the way for the exploitation of this relatively scarce resource. Still, experts in the sector contend that expand- ing an already existing landfill appears to be the most pragmatic solution and this is the main con- sideration, behind the decision. The ticking waste bomb And while Malta finally has em- barked on waste separation after decades of procrastination, pop- ulation pressures and the absence of disincentives to encourage waste reduction, have made the problem even more pressing. While the new environment minister's choices are limited by a history of procrastination and dilly-dalling on this issue by pre- vious administrations, he cannot afford to overlook the issue of waste minimisation. As the country continues to lag behind in waste recovery and re- cycling targets, it became clear that the existing landfills would not be able to fill the gap until the completion of the incinerator. Plans submitted in 2018 foresee extending the Ghallis landfill's lifetime by around nine to 12 months, increasing empty space in the landfill by 350,000 cubic metres. But studies included in a project development statement outlining these works had already revealed that the remaining empty space at the Ghallis landfill is expect- ed to be "filled rapidly", given current waste deposition rates – an average of 21,500 tonnes per month during 2016. How Malta lags behind By 2020, Malta should have halved the amount of garbage it was landfilling in 1995. But this will certainly not be the case. With a target to recycle 50% of its municipal waste within two years, Malta had only managed to recycle only 5.68% of this waste in 2014. And the percentage of recycled waste declined from 8.1% in 2012 to 6.8% in 2013 and to 5.7% in 2014 and 6.7% in 2015. The island is now ranked sixth among the EU countries that generate the most waste per in- habitant. Nearly 90% of all rub- bish is sent to landfills, with just eight per cent being recycled. Malta is generating an average of 600kg of waste for each inhab- itant as the island's population spiked to over 433,000 in recent years. Tourism has also reached the 2 million mark. But while population may be a factor, the most pressing issue is our con- sumeristic and wasteful lifestyle, symbolised by free mineral wa- ter coupons given to shoppers in Maghtab expansion: the The unforeseen expansion of the landfill at Magħtab is a stop-gap measure in what has become a race against time for which farmers will ultimately be expected to take the brunt. But how have we arrived to this?