Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1535753
KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt 8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 MAY 2025 NEWS Mater Dei Hospital produced 11,000 tonnes of clinical waste MATER Dei Hospital produced approximately 11,000 tonnes of clinical waste last year, figures ta- bled in parliament show. As expected, clinical waste was by far the largest waste stream to come out of the general hospital that produced a total of just over 13,000 tonnes of waste. The statistics were tabled by Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela in reply to a parliamentary ques- tion by Nationalist MP Ian Vassal- lo Hagi. Clinical waste poses a risk of in- fection, disease or harm to anyone who comes in contact with it and must be kept distinct from other waste streams. Clinical waste, like abattoir waste, is incinerated at the Marsa Thermal Treatment Facility oper- ated by Wasteserv. The Marsa incinerator will even- tually be replaced by a new facility at the Magħtab waste complex. This hazardous waste incinerator is distinct from another incinera- tor planned for the Magħtab com- plex that will burn unrecyclable domestic waste. The second laargest waste stream at Mater Dei in 2024 was domestic waste with the hospital producing 2,000 tonnes of it. Approximately 149 tonnes of hospital waste were recyclable materials, followed by 22 tonnes of shredded paper. Cytotoxic, or chemotherapy waste, totalled around 17 tonnes. This waste stream contains sub- stances with genotoxic proper- ties—chemicals with the ability to damage the genetic information within a cell resulting in muta- tions. It also requires specialised disposal. Almost eight tonnes of electrical and electronic equipment, techni- cally referred as WEEE, from Ma- ter Dei entered the waste stream in 2024. Around two tonnes of chemicals and just under a tonne of pharmaceuticals made up the rest of the waste produced in the hospital. Mater Dei Hospital is the only public acute general hospital on Malta. A second general hospital is found in Gozo but this is much smaller. Mater Dei has around 1,000 in-patient beds and sees around one million visitors per year on an outpatient and emergency basis, apart from employing hundreds of medical and non-medical staff. No information on waste gener- ated by other public hospitals was provided in the PQ. Clinical waste is incinerated at the Marsa Thermal Treatment Facility operated by Wasteserv