The Labour party made a U-turn on the idea of a waste-to-energy incinerator, former Resources and Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino wrote on Facebook, highlighting that the PN administration had wanted to construct a waste-to-energy incinerator back in the 2008–2013.

The issue of the incinerator has been a topic for discussion on the island, and Environment Minister Jose Herrera recently announced that it will be constructed in Maghtab by 2023.

During the 2008–2013 period, Pullicino said, a number of concerns were raised by sections of the Labour Party about the proposal for a Waste-to-Energy incineration plant. The PL had criticised alleged plans for it to be built at Delimara, and according to reports, in a written question to the European Commission, former MEP Louis Grech had asked the EC to give its opinion on government plans to build an incinerator for solid waste at Marsaxlokk. In his question, Grech had said the south of Malta was already overly burdened which pollution-causing industry which was detrimental to the environment and public health. He had also said that the impact on the people had not been given the importance it deserved.

Another report from 2009, quoting Leo Brincat, then Labour spokesperson on the environment, read: “According to Brincat, reliance on incineration is proof of the failure of the waste strategy so far, compounded with the ‘desperate’ need to come up with renewable energy to make up for time lost in meeting targets. But he drew attention to toxic emissions and hazardous ash as inevitable by-products of incineration that raise serious health concerns.”

In yet another report in May 2014 after the elections, Environment Minister Leo Brincat said that “when he inherited the waste management problem, plans had already been defined for the construction of an incinerator next to the Delimara power station but there were no studies to justify this was the best option for the country.” He said, at the time, government was not going to move into an investment blindly without knowing the alternatives.

Pullicino , speaking with this newsroom after filing his post on Facebook, said that the PL at the time was scaring people about the idea. He emphasised that while the PN’s proposal was to burn 20% of waste, government is now proposing a facility that will burn around 40% of waste.

Speaking with The Malta Independent, George Pullicino said that at the time (2008-2013), the PN had begun carrying out studies about the incinerator. “Unfortunately Labour came out very strongly against, and we decided to wait for the electoral result and to move on that afterwards.”

 “20% of our waste is Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF),” he explained. He gave an example of this kind of waste: “A plastic bottle being thrown into the black bag together with food, cannot be recycled. Instead of throwing it into a landfill, we wanted to recoup the energy from that fraction, which amounts to around 20% of our solid municipal waste. It seems, although they are not saying it, that they will also burn plastic which can be recycled. Instead of collecting it at the Sant’ Antnin plant as we were doing, piling it, bailing it and selling it, it seems they intend to incinerate all plastics, packaging waste and the rest. That is unacceptable.”

“You should firstly drive people to recycle, and burn what you cannot recycle, not go for the simple solution of burning everything.”

Asked if he believes such a waste-to-energy plant is safe, he immediately said yes. “Let me be very blunt, whoever tries to say that incinerators are not safe are wrong. Incinerators, when operating in line with EU directives, are absolutely safe. 2/3rds of an incinerator plant is normally a filtration process, and there are several incinerators in many EU countries. It is foolish for anyone to try and put forward an idea that incinerators are harmful. They are not.”

“What is important is that they are operated in the proper way and in accordance with EU directives.”

The Nationalist Party has not appointed a representative to the waste management committee, despite being invited to do so by Environment Minister Jose Herrera.

Pullicino criticised the Labour government for letting the waste situation in Malta reach the current problematic levels.

“They did not build an incinerator, the landfill kept filling up haphazardly, the amount of recycled waste reduced and so more waste went to the landfill. Now their backs are against the wall due to irresponsible policies and are now saying they want to build an incinerator.”

“A u-turn like this means a complete failure in the Labour Party’s waste management policies, but as usual, absolutely nobody resigns in Malta. This is an admission of failure. They don’t have any space left in the landfill to dump waste.”

Pullicino believes that even with the incinerator, the government would now need to create another landfill given that the current one is full. “Where will the rest (60%) of waste go, will someone take it? It would be better to say that they will need another landfill now rather than wait.”

Told about the idea of 60% being recycled he said “You cannot recycle 60%. They have hardly reached the percentage shown in the waste management strategy. How can they reach a 60% target?”

On Sunday PM Joseph Muscat said if Malta did not build an incinerator it would either have to introduce a new tax to ship waste abroad or find a site for a new landfill, which would only last for around ten years.