With everything happening in the world, in government, and even within my own ministry, one particular issue predominated my past few weeks: construction waste. 

I held many meetings, briefings, and received a lot of questions. I met with quarry owners, consulted with ERA, the MDA, in attempts to understand the issue in depth and also come up with solutions to - in the short term, restart the industry and, in the long term, to regulate the sector. A sector which, it must be said, was left practically unregulated for far too long. 

What we must point out from the outset is that the issue of construction and demolition waste is not a straightforward one. 

It involves a number of stakeholders and industry players within a business value chain that has substantial dependencies and relationships between the players involved, each of whom may have perfectly legitimate, though not necessarily congruent, expectations as to what they should or should not be doing to maintain their own business in good health. This whilst pursuing their legitimate profit-making aims in the context of the investments each may have undertaken.  

This must also be seen in the light of valuable real property rights that stakeholders may have a legal claim for.

At the simplest level, there are the contractors that undertake development, which generates construction waste on their behalf or that of others. 

Then there are the owners and operators of quarries who may or may not still be extracting mineral resources and thus may not necessarily be in an operational position to accept construction waste without disrupting their own business or possibly having to forego valuable quarry resources. 

The quarry owners and operators may also be needing to time their own operations to maximise value or to properly align with capital or operational requirements. Clearly the business imperatives and priorities of one stakeholder may not tally perfectly with those of the other stakeholders.  Matters get more complex when quarry owners and operators are themselves development contractors or when they have standing business agreements with specific development contractors.

Clearly the unprecedented rate of economic development that Malta has experienced in the last few years has brought about a concomitant increase in construction and demolition waste, and consequently, under the economic rule of supply and demand, increased pressures for higher dumping fees.  This has, in turn, resulted in situations where some contractors are facing higher costs than those anticipated when they tendered for works projects, further exacerbating the pressures around the problem.

It is in such context that I, together with ERA, have been undertaking long discussions with quarry owners and also representatives of developers with a view to facilitating a solution to the apparent impasse by trying to find the middle ground to which all can agree without the need to invoke Government’s legal and statutory powers.

It has always been this government’s approach to seek mutually acceptable solutions through constructive dialogue, as this is seen as the best way to ensure an environment of stable industrial relations that is key for ensuring prosperity in any democratic country. Maintaining the right balance between development and environmental needs is also a strong guiding element for me. In this context, a solution that makes use of existing quarry landfilling void space is preferable to others involving extensions to quarries or dumping at sea, even if these choices must out of necessity be maintained as controversial policy options - and a last resort. 

Following intensive discussions, a number of quarry owners and operators have agreed to immediately start accepting construction and demolition waste. Government has further facilitated this by amending the related tax incentive regulations, raising the qualifying dumping fee threshold from €8 per ton to €12 or less per ton. 

This means that those quarries who accept construction and demolition waste at the rate of €12 per ton will benefit from a maximum tax rate of 5% on the related income.  This rate was also deemed acceptable for development contractors when compared to market rates of €15 per ton and over, that were previously being demanded.  We are informed that as a result of this arrangement there is now no major shortage of void space to accept the waste being generated. 

Our estimates indicate that for the foreseeable future there should be no such further shortages. This means that operators now have the needed visibility and tranquility to enable them to undertake investments from which, through the multiplier effect of economic activity, the country will achieve net benefits when compared to the costs of tax incentives.  The relevance and importance of this should also be further appreciated in the context of the current economic slowdown brought about by the global pandemic. 

We have, however, given a helping hand - not a freehand licence.

We have given leeway for quarry operators to freely open up their quarries to more realistically align with the demand since research and quarry surveys indicate that there is more than enough existing space to cater for continued heightened demand.  

ERA will be enhancing its oversight on quarry operations to ensure that these are abiding by the set license conditions whilst Government is clear in its intentions to ensure that there are no abuses. The discussions undertaken have shown that stakeholders have been forthcoming in seeking solutions. 

That said, I acknowledge that the present regulatory framework is lacking. This is why we have initiated the process to prepare and introduce, following all necessary consultations, more robust regulations.

We also appreciate that construction waste is in itself a resource and in this context, the reduction and recycling of such waste needs to be actively taken up.  We are also aware that there are indeed operators that, seeing the potential commercial and environmental benefit, already actively undertake recycling of construction waste.

This issue is in fact being presently examined by ERA that has been tasked with drafting a strategy for the management of construction and demolition waste that incorporates circular economy concepts. 

A number of new measures will help to finally regulate this sector. For instance, in the process of the development permission, with the commencement notice, the disposal site where the waste is to be deposited by the developer needs to be identified. What this means is that essentially developers cannot commence works if they do not have a guarantee that they will have a site in which to deposit the construction waste of their works. Furthermore conditions in contracts for use of quarries, and in permits for operation and use, will be scrutinised and enforced by the responsible entities in a coordinated effort. This will be laying the foundations for a sustainable future for the industry.

Malta’s size is what it is but it must not be seen as a barrier to the country’s development.  Our commitment is to strive towards sustainable practices but this does not mean looking inwardly or resign ourselves to apparent constraints.  We need to think outside of the box to unleash innovative ideas that spur sustainable development and progress for our country and our people.