In 2015, the total amount of solid waste generated amounted to 1.9 million tonnes, down by 2.4 per cent over the previous year, the NSO said today. Non-hazardous waste fell by 3.1 per cent, mainly due to a drop of 4.6 per cent in the generation of non-hazardous mineral waste. On the other hand, hazardous waste generation increased by 36.4 per cent as a result of higher amounts of discarded vehicles (10,937 tonnes) and chemical wastes (4,463 tonnes).
Waste treatment registered a drop of 1.1 per cent over the same period, the main agent being a steep decrease of 86.2 per cent in the management of waste that was treated as disposal at sea.
Waste treatment was mainly by means of backfilling, with more than half the total amount, followed by recycling at 26.2 percent.
Waste disposed at the Għallis landfill went up by 7.3 per cent, mainly due to increases in household and similar wastes (16,022 tonnes) and wood waste (14,398 tonnes). Conversely, the most notable decreases were registered for sorting residues (6,007 tonnes) and common sludges (2,069 tonnes).
Waste treated at the Sant’Antnin waste treatment plant registered a drop for the second year in a row by 6,917 tonnes (11.4 per cent). Cutbacks occurred for all waste categories, the highest being for sorting residues by 3,920 tonnes. At the waste treatment level, a decline of 23.7 per cent was registered for the output of waste for recycling in overseas facilities. On the other hand, the output of waste for temporary storage doubled, whilst the output of sorting residues (organic material sorted from municipal waste) to the anaerobic digestion plant increased by 6.5 per cent.
Total waste incinerated at the Marsa thermal treatment facility decreased by 437 tonnes, down by
7.1 per cent over the previous year. This drop can be largely attributed to lower amounts of animal and mixed food waste (5.7 per cent) which represents 90.9 per cent of the waste treated at this facility. During the year under review, waste output from private pre-treatment facilities amounted to 78,372 tonnes of which 89.7 per cent were exported for recycling or recovery.
Inert waste treatment in 2015 was characterised by a decrease of 1.6 per cent in treated amounts.
This was mainly due to a drop of 90.2 per cent in the disposal at sea of dredging spoils, which was partially offset by an increase of 68.9 per cent in the backfilling of mineral waste from construction and demolition.
In 2015, the separate collection of waste fractions from Civic amenity sites increased by 2,733 tonnes (11.0 per cent), in part due to the opening of a new facility in May. Households showed a greater preference for the door-to-door collection of Green/grey bag and glass containers over Bring-in sites for the disposal of recyclable waste. In fact, the former increased by 2,035 tonnes (15.8 per cent) while the latter decreased by 1,088 tonnes (29.1 per cent).