With the Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s final approval for the development of the Ghallis ta’ Gewwa site – located just below Maghtab’s western slope – paving the way for the creation of Malta’s second engineered landfill, another piece of the jigsaw that is Malta’s waste management strategy has been fit in place.
The strategy, being implemented by Wasteserv Malta, is a wide-ranging vision incorporating the rehabilitation of the Maghtab landfill, the development of the Taz-Zwejra and Ghallis engineered landfills, the Sant’Antnin Waste Treatment Plant, construction waste being used to rehabilitate disused quarries, the bring-in waste separation sites and a number of educational initiatives.
The long-standing eyesore and environmental hazard that is the Maghtab landfill was closed on 1 May 2004 and is currently being rehabilitated. The site is no longer accepting waste, which was for decades piled on top of the landfill to be indiscriminately burned by the raging fires within. Toxic emissions, particularly dioxins, have been significantly reduced and compost and inert material is being placed on the areas in the direst need of attention, creating a biodegradable filtering system. Runoff rain water from Maghtab is also being controlled by the installation of covers, gutters and a reservoir collection system.
The Maghtab landfill had begun life as a cultivation project whereby soil is deposited over waste with the idea of eventually ending up with fertile fields.
The plan, however, was never seen through to its fruition and waste of all sorts continued to build up at the site in a completely uncontrolled manner.
While a total of E8 million in European Union funding has been spent on controlling Maghtab’s fires and hazardous emissions, the adjacent landfills of Taz-Zwejra and Ghallis will be generating electricity without contaminating the environment. Methane gas will eventually be extracted from Taz-Zwejra, Ghallis and Maghtab, converted into electricity and fed into the national grid – providing up to three per cent of Malta’s electricity needs through green, clean energy.
While construction waste is going toward filling derelict quarries, the new engineered landfills will be taking in mainly household and commercial waste, which produces green energy producing gasses such as methane.
Further progress, however, has to be made at the grassroots level in terms of minimising waste and this is being tackled through a wide-ranging educational campaign being developed by Wasteserv.
“First, we have to minimise the generation of waste, which is being taken care of by a very strong public campaign under preparation. This will help to reduce what we actually dispose of in the landfills,” explained Wasteserv CEO Ing. Vince Magri. “Our mission was to change the culture, and it is changing.”
Wasteserv’s educational campaign started off with a number of waste separation bring-in sites – one in each locality across the islands.
The results were so effective that waste being collected from bring-in sites has increased by 100 per cent per year.
“It boils down to a question of raising awareness and people are continually becoming more conscious of the issues,” Ing. Magri adds. “Over the past three years, for example, we have not registered an increase in waste disposal, which should be proportional to the increase in the generation of waste.
“While we have an increase of some 2.6 – three per cent per year in terms of waste generation, waste disposal has either remained constant or declined marginally. This implies that an amount equivalent to the additional waste generated is actually being recycled.”
The 70-odd bring-in sites currently in operation are to be increased significantly, again with the help of EU funds, to some 400. Information is being gathered from local councils on preferred site locations and permit applications.
100 schools also have waste separation facilities and the number is expected to be increased to 250 by the year’s end.
Hand-in-hand with the bring-in site initiative is Wasteserv’s EFS project, which brings the message of waste separation and safeguarding the environment, quite literally, to people’s doorsteps.
The project, ongoing until the end of next year, has seen unemployed workers being trained by psychologists and environmental education specialists in conveying the message of “reduce, reuse and recycle”, and educating, on a door-to-door basis, people on the merits and workings of waste minimisation and separation. Citizens are also educated on the brass tacks of waste separation and the proper use of bring-in sites. So far, nearly 5,000 homes have been visited and by the end of next year the project is projected to have reached between 20,000 and 25,000 households.
Ing. Magri adds, “What Wasteserv is trying to do is show that it is everyone has a part to play. So much investment is being carried out and no one even notices. Once waste is buried, it’s out of sight and everyone forgets about it.
“We rarely give a second thought to what happens to our waste, but we would complain strongly if it was not collected and disposed of.”
“Where it is eventually disposed of is not our problem, as long as it is not close to us. Now that EU obligations have to be adhered to and with the population becoming more educated, we as a country are realising that if we don’t care about how we manage our waste, it will eventually backfire, and this is what Maghtab is doing. However, had we had a more hidden dump, as opposed to Maghtab which is in plain view, I don’t think the general public would be as aware of our waste problem as it is today.”
Maghtab: under rehabilitation
With waste first beginning to accumulate at the site in the 1970s, Maghtab is a quintessential example of a landfill gone wrong through lack of planning and foresight. Over the ensuing decades, a mountain of waste developed, with all sorts of waste being indiscriminately piled on top - adding fuel to raging fires within and emitting hazardous airborne dioxins, while runoff rain water carried more pollution away from the site.
Closed since 1 May 2004, the landfill is in the process of being capped with compost produced by the Sant’Antnin Waste Treatment and Composting Plant and inert materials from the site itself, while a gutter and reservoir system are also being installed to gather runoff rain water.
Apart from no longer adding fuel to the proverbial fire, the shifting of materials to areas in need of the greatest attention has produced a temporary cap and biodegradable filter to minimise emissions, particularly hazardous dioxins.
E8 million in EU funding has been spent so far on limiting Maghtab’s emissions and Wasteserv, the landfill’s operator, reports an encouraging reduction.
While the external portion of the landfill has been declared inert, its centre, somewhat akin to a volcano, holds fires of some 180 degrees centigrade. While the fires within cannot be completely extinguished, since once air seeps in the fires relight, the gasses can be controlled and channelled.
Good, energy-producing gas such as methane will be channelled, along with other gasses from the taz-Zwejra and Ghallis engineered landfills to an on site combustion engine to produce electrical energy, while other gasses will be channelled for treatment.
Taz-Zwejra: positive methane readings
The engineered landfill at taz-Zwejra, located on the southern edge of Maghtab, began operations in May 2004 and readings to date have yielded no signs of leakage. Gas-extracting wells drilled into the landfill have also had very encouraging results in terms of methane recovery.
Wasteserv hopes that within the next two years the landfill will be capped, no leakages will be found and green electricity will be generated from gasses extracted.
The landfill’s initial phase, its first cell, is already being considered for capping. Part has been covered with turf as a gas detection measure as any damage to the vegetation above would be a clear indication of gas seepage from the landfill. So far the turf has remained green and thriving.
As opposed to Maghtab, the taz-Zwejra landfill benefits from foresight. The facility collects municipal solid waste and has combined gas recovery and leachate recirculation systems. The site, the first permitted engineered landfill with an IPPC (integrated pollution prevention permit) in Malta, is equipped and lined with a 500mm thick foundation layer, a two mm thick textured membrane, a geotextile protection liner, a geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) and a leachate drainage system.
Ghallis ta’ Gewwa: green light given
The Ghallis ta’ Gewwa site, located at Maghtab’s western edge, received the green light from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority just last week and is expected to become operational within the coming weeks. The site’s first two, of three, cells are scheduled for excavation and are to begin receiving waste later this year.
The site, which drew considerable criticism from the area’s hotel industry and residents, will have a total capacity of 1.7 million cubic metres for non-hazardous waste, primarily from households and commercial concerns, with an additional area of 100,000 cubic metres to receive hazardous waste to be treated for disposal locally or to be sent abroad for specialised treatment.
Some 1.2 million cubic metres of limestone will be excavated over two years to create a void for the landfill, with at least half of the excavated material being used on site while the remainder will be “exported” for beneficial use outside the site.
Short of last week’s go-ahead, Wasteserv had already begun development works in the area, which have allowed for the stabilisation of Maghtab’s western edge, while also preparing the Ghallis site for its eventual development.
With the Ghallis site being located directly below Maghtab’s steeply inclined, unstable western edge, stabilisation works were deemed necessary for the eventual safe development of the Ghallis site and were undertaken in line with Maghtab’s rehabilitation permit. The stabilisation is crucial to the rehabilitation of Maghtab itself so as to avoid dangerous shifts in surface layers once pipes are drilled to extract gasses.
Promising green energy prospects
By gathering and channelling methane gasses from decomposing waste from Maghtab and the engineered landfills of taz-Zwejra and Ghallis, Wasteserv intends to begin producing green energy to be fed into the national power grid. The development represents a reversal of the status quo to date, which has seen the energy producer also being the biggest environmental polluter.
Green energy created from the recovery of methane holds the potential of meeting as much as three per cent of Malta’s overall electricity needs.
Tests carried out so far at the taz-Zwejra landfill have produced very encouraging readings with high methane gas levels being recorded. Indications have pointed to a ratio of 60 per cent methane against 40 per cent carbon dioxide, levels considered very high for landfills.
With the Maltese kitchen still being very active and producing large amounts of biodegradable waste compared with packaging waste, Maltese household waste in still very high in organic material at about 60 per cent of the total household waste output. This, coupled with Malta’s relatively low rainfall levels and high temperatures, gives Malta optimum conditions for the production of methane.
Energy producing gasses will be fed into an on site combustion engine where they will be converted into energy. Other non-energy producing gasses, meanwhile, will be channelled elsewhere for treatment.
The on site sub-station will see a significant upgrade to make it the first to be rated not in terms of the amount of electricity consumed but, instead, on the amount being supplied to Enemalta. A Lm40,000 distribution centre is also being constructed on site.