Dealing with Waste in Malta and Gozo for a more Sustainable Tourism Industry Ms. Henrietta Debono WasteServ Malta Ltd.

This follows from the general definition of sustainable development. Globe 90 defined sustainable tourism as: “tourism meeting the needs of present tourists and hosts while protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future.” This follows from the general definition of sustainable development.

According to Fennell (1999) sustainable tourism development aims to: develop greater awareness and understanding of tourism’s significant contributions to the environment and the economy; promote equity and development; improve host communities’ quality of life; provide high-quality experience for visitors; (v) maintain environmental quality.

(A Solid Waste Management Strategy for the Maltese Islands, 2001) “Preventing and managing waste is at the heart of sustainable development.” (A Solid Waste Management Strategy for the Maltese Islands, 2001) Preventing and managing waste is essential for the achievement of sustainable tourism.

WASTE Waste is a material that needs to be discarded because it has become obsolete and has little or no value to the individual who discards it.

Sustainable waste management is about: using resources more efficiently reducing the amount of waste we produce where waste is generated it must be dealt with it in a way that will help to achieve the goal of sustainable development considering that a material that you consider as waste, may be of use to others

Achieving Sustainable Waste Management One needs to consider a number of principles: The Waste Hierarchy: - waste prevention/reduction - reuse - recycling - recovery - disposal

2. Best Practicable Environment Option (BPEO) - the option that provides the most benefits or least damage to the environment as a whole, at acceptable cost, in the long term as well as in the short term 3. Proximity Principle - waste should be treated or disposed of as near as possible to the point where it is generated; the overall aim of this principle is to achieve self-sufficiency at a national level

5. Polluter Pays Principle 4. Precautionary Principle - where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental damage 5. Polluter Pays Principle - the polluter should bear the full cost of the consequences of their actions; the potential environmental and human health costs of producing, treating and disposing of waste should be reflected in the price of products and the charges associated with the management of waste

6. Producer Responsibility - manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers of products that give rise to the generation of wastes, should take collective responsibility for those wastes - producers should take responsibility for designing and developing goods that do not contain hazardous substances and that have potential for recycling

Waste from the Tourism Sector The sector generates significant quantities of waste, mainly packaging and biodegradable wastes; The sector should aim at preventing and recycling waste generated; All this depends on the availability of facilities for collection, treatment and disposal of waste;

WasteServ Malta Ltd. WasteServ Malta Ltd. was established in November 2002. Our mission is to organise, supervise and control the provision of major public waste management facilities and related services throughout the Maltese Islands. Our commitment is to manage wastes in a sustainable manner, thus also contributing indirectly to sustainable tourism.

Our initiatives to achieve sustainable waste management Amongst others these include: Closure, rehabilitation and return to good use all old waste management facilities; Diversion of all inert wastes into disused quarries as from July 2003; Establishment of new engineered facilities for the pre-treatment and safe disposal of wastes; Establishment of a waste transfer station in Gozo;

Establishment of bring-in sites for the collection of dry recyclables (plastics, glass, paper and metals); Establishment of a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) for the recovery of recyclables; Upgrading of Sant’ Antnin composting plant to achieve a better quality compost and reduce the quantity of biodegradable wastes sent to landfill; Searching for sustainable markets for recycling of a wide range of recovered materials; Ensuring that waste management fees reflect the true capital/operational costs;

Rehabiliatation of old waste dumps (Maghtab, Qortin and Wied Fulija) The Maghtab and Qortin dumps were shut down on 1 May 2004. The sites are being rehabilitated through an EU co-financed project. The project includes the following components: Closure and initial phase of the rehabilitation of Maghtab, Qortin and Wied Fulija landfills; Introduction of the environmental measures necessary in order to enable the landfills to be fully rehabilitated and brought back to beneficial use at a future date; Immediate minimisation of the aerial impacts of the landfills on nearby receptors;

Bring-in Sites WasteServ, in association with Local Councils, is establishing Bring-in Sites where the public is able to deliver clean, source-segregated recyclable materials. The Bring-in Sites consist of four containers: blue for plastic, white for paper, brown for glass and black for metal. Materials from these bring-in sites are collected separately and taken to Sant'Antnin Waste Treatment Plant where they are further sorted and then sent for recycling. So far there are about 70 bring-in sites around Malta and Gozo. Through EU Structural Funding, by the end of 2006, WasteServ will be able to establish around 400 bring-in sites around the Maltese Islands.

Civic Amenity Sites Civic Amenity Sites or Recycling Centres are supervised facilities where members of the public can bring and discard of a variety of household waste.  Civic Amenity Sites cater also for bulky waste such as tyres, refrigerators, electronic products, waste from DIY activities and garden waste.  Malta is currently benefiting from 4.6 million Euros in structural funds to finance a waste separation project.  The project entitled ‘Establishing civic amenity and bring-in sites, a separate household waste collection and an integrated communications strategy’  is aimed at introducing waste separation nationwide. The project includes the setting up of five centres for bulky waste which will be situated in Maghtab, Mriehel, Hal Far, Luqa and Tal-Kus L/O Xewkija, Gozo.

Sant Antnin Waste Treatment and Composting Plant The plant was commissioned in 1993 but has been beset with a series of technical and environmental problems throughout its history and the quality of the finished product is unsatisfactory.  The existing facility will be upgraded through funding provided in part by the European Union. For the modernization of this plant some 16.7 million Euros will be co-financed by the European Union Cohesion Funds. The proposed facility would aim to treat recyclable and organic waste with a view to recycling and recovering as much waste as possible, and consequently reducing the amount of household waste landfilled. Biogas will be generated through digestion of biowaste. The gas will be utilised for energy generation.

Inert Waste The Maltese Government closed the Maghtab dump to inert waste in July 2003 and awarded a five-year contract to a private contractor who is rehabilitating quarries by filling them up with uncontaminated construction material. Between May 2003 and July 2006, over 4.6 million tonnes of construction waste have been disposed of in various quarries across the island. These quarries were rehabilitated into fields.

Ta’ Zwejra Non-hazardous Waste Facility Ta’ Zwejra is the first permitted engineered landfill which has an IPPC (integrated pollution prevention permit) Permit in Malta. Started to operate on 1st May 2004. The landfill facility is equipped and lined with a 500mm thick foundation layer, a 2 mm thick textured membrane, a geotextile protection liner, a geosynthetic clay liner (GCL)and a leachate drainage system. When the site reaches its full capacity, the site will be capped and a gas collection system will be installed. The landfill gas will be extracted with the objective of generating power.

Gozo Transfer Station A waste transfer station will be established for the island of Gozo. At present a temporary waste transfer station is being operated at Qortin. The project includes sorting and storage bays for the different waste streams and the loading bay for the transportation of non-inert and non-hazardous waste originating from the islands of Gozo and Comino to Malta. The non-hazardous, non-inert waste is transported to Malta for treatment or disposal, via Gozo Channel vessels using large vehicles thereby reducing the number of vehicles carrying waste to a bare minimum.

Ghallis Facilities The facilities shall comprise: An engineered landfill facility for non-inert non-hazardous wastes; An engineered landfill facility for hazardous wastes; A storage and treatment facility for hazardous wastes. These facilities are currently being constructed.

THANK YOU!

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