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MALTATODAY 18 September 2022

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NEWS 9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 18 SEPTEMBER 2022 emergency facing Malta 2009: Maghtab, with the smaller landfill yet to rise as high as it is today. Below, as the topped-up landfill will look by 2024 ment in view of statistics show- ing the percentage of landfilled waste increase rather than de- crease in the past few years. Not only was Malta on course to miss its 2020 target to recy- cle 50% of its municipal waste and subsequent targets, but it has also seen a year-on-year increase in the weight of land- filled waste per capita. Landfilled waste increased from 530kg/year/inhabitant in 2017 to 636kg/year/inhabitant in 2019. The material recycling rate also remains low, and ac- tually decreased in that period from 74 kg/year/inhabitant to 62kg/year/inhabitant for the same years. And while organic waste has been separately collected door- to-door since 2018 with an average of 25,750 tonnes col- lected in the last three years (2019- 2021), "its treatment does not qualify as recycling". Presently organic waste is treated and used for lining the landfill. A 2015 study by the EC inves- tigating landfilling of untreat- ed, non-hazardous, municipal solid waste had revealed treat- ment shortcomings at Għallis and that "substantive amounts of waste are landfilled without treatment." The reason for this was that there was not enough treat- ment capacity in the country to treat all the waste disposed of in the landfill sites. In comparison with the EU averages for recycling and landfilling rates, Malta has made very limited progress over the past decade. The ma- terial recycling rate for munic- ipal waste in 2019 was 9.9%, the same as in 2018 and below 11.1% in 2017. This is well be- low the EU average of 47.7 % (EU 2019) and shows insuffi- cient improvement overall. The report says these dismal records show that "there has been a deterioration in waste management in Malta, as the landfill rate has increased, and the recycling rate has de- creased in the reported years." In view of this deterioration, Malta was urged by Brussels to introduce a 'fiscal mechanism' to discourage the landfilling of waste. In its 2019 report, the Com- mission specifically called for an increase in taxes on land- filled waste. Now, the Com- mission is calling for the in- troduction of "progressive and effective instruments to curb the landfill rate." The Commission suggests that "revenues" from these instruments should finance "measures to improve waste management." The report notes the "limited progress" in the waste sector and calls for further action to ensure the collection and treat- ment of recyclable waste and in- troduce curbs on the disposal of recyclable waste in landfill sites. It has noted the adoption of a new waste management plan, and Malta's plans to increase its waste management capac- ity with new infrastructure to reduce dependency on landfill- ing. This is a reference to plans to construct a waste incinera- tor and organic waste process- ing plant at Magħtab. But the report also calls for urgent reforms and invest- ments in waste management and the circular economy to move away from heavy reliance on waste disposal in landfills. "Malta needs to further cap- italise on turning waste into resources, thus advancing its transition to a more circular economy," the report says. "There has been a deterioration in waste management in Malta, as the landfill rate has increased, and the recycling rate has decreased in the reported years" European Commission

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