The government last week focused its attention on the waste issue and its serious implications for the future of Malta.
The issue is that we as a nation are increasing our waste stream beyond limits. We are a small country, an island, with an ever increasing population, including tourists, around the year.
This ever increasing population is creating an ever-increasing deluge of waste as many products of today's consumer society are built on the principle of 'usa e getta' rather than, as in the past, we keep repairing what gets broken.
The second point to make is that we are seriously running out of space to landfill waste. Malta is the only country in the EU to landfill all its waste. In Europe only Turkey landfills all its waste, but then it has ample space.
In Malta's case the Ghallis landfill, the second landfill in the space of a few years, is almost full. We have thus to think about a new landfill but this, of an enormous size, will only last a few years. Then, when it's full, a new landfill will have to be created, which will last even less years than the new one, due to the increased waste that will come out of Malta's houses and industries.
And that's not factoring in the controversies which will inevitably accompany the choice of the new site of the landfill since no one wants it behind his door.
Clearly, today's waste processing has to change. We have a rudimentary and almost primitive waste separation process which varies from one locality to the next. Basically, we dump everything into the black bag, that atre collected almost on a daily basis. And then we put tins, paper, etc into the grey bag, which is collected on its own special day in the week.
Even so, this system is creaking apart. Many people just dump everything into the black bags. Others are unsure about the grey bag regime. WasteServ seems to have a problem with the storage of inert waste prior to exporting it, as witness the huge blaze that occurred earlier this year at Marsascala.
Before and around this problem, we have been here for many years. It is important to note that Malta's highest mountain, Maghtab, is the result of our waste. To our shame, we have to tell visitors that our highest mountain is our accumulated waste. They laugh at this story.
The government seems to have decided on incineration as the long-term solution to Malta's waste problem. There seems to have been a problem that ironically all the waste we produce does not seem to be enough to keep an incinerator going 24x7. That is apart from the accompanying problems regarding where this incinerator will be and the cost (reportedly some €150 million).
We agree that today's technology makes the process a very safe one, as witness the similar plants in the middle of cities.
The problem we have with this overall strategy is that the incinerator will keep us as lazy as we are today. Just as some people are not fagged to separate their waste into black and grey bags, so too we are afraid people will lose the incentive to cut down on waste, to recycle and to separate. That is very wrong.
Our streets and our roads show us as a people with many dirty habits. We only keep neat the insides of our homes. It is this same attitude that must be tackled as regards waste.