This year the government has already issued some Lm1.7 million in subsidies. However, the Environment and Rural Affairs Ministry has been in talks with the FOI to phase out subsidies by the end of the year. By March, the funding had been reduced from 100 to 72 per cent of costs, and recently it was further reduced to 38 per cent.

By January, however, the subsidy will be removed completely and the private sector will have to make its own arrangements to recycle its waste or dump it in the quarries ear-marked for the purpose.

Following the closure of the Maghtab and Qortin landfills last year, construction waste, which amounts to 80 per cent of the total waste produced, began being dumped in exhausted quarries that have been included in a programme aimed at rehabilitating these sites, mainly for agricultural purposes.

Each ton of material transported to these quarries costs the government Lm1.18. Over the first six months of this year it is estimated that 1.2 million tonnes of construction waste was transported to the sites, with an average of 500 truck loads per day at a cost of some Lm 1.4 million.

Commenting to this newspaper, Environment and Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino said the exercise was part of the government’s strategy to make waste management sustainable.

Moreover, the minister was recently presented with Waste Serv’s development plan for the next three years in which the company’s recurrent expenditure is projected to increase considerably. However, sources at the ministry would not disclose the figures as they are under discussion and still have to be presented to the cabinet.

Waste Serv’s recurrent expenditure, now standing at Lm4 million, is expected to rise as a result of the new waste management facilities installed. The government is looking at the cut back in construction disposal subsidy as a means to make up for this added expense.

The construction industry is doing well, said Mr Pullicino, and it is not possible for the government to continue subsidising it, especially in view of the increasing recurring expenditure which which Wasteserv will be faced as its facilities are improved.

The government has plans to upgrade the present waste treatment infrastructure at an estimated cost of Lm32

million, of which the EU will be funding some Lm24

million. The revenue to be generated by eco-contribution could cover the current Wasteserv running costs but will not be enough once the new facilities are in place.