WasteServ Malta Ltd has collected around 5,320 tonnes of source-segregated bulky waste through its civic amenity sites situated in Maghtab, Mriehel and Hal Far, with 32,542 vehicles making use of this service by bringing in separated waste between January and May this year.

Comparing with the same period last year, the increase in vehicles has more than tripled while the volume collected has more than doubled. In fact, between January and May 2007, vehicles entering the civic amenity sites amounted to 8,839 while the waste collected amounted to 2,204.1 tonnes.

“Civic amenity sites are gradually becoming ingrained into our society, and households are ever-increasingly responding to our request to separate waste appropriately in order to reduce the amount of waste going to the landfill” said Ing. Vince Magri, chief executive officer at WasteServ Malta Ltd. “While turning it into a sustainable exercise, with these sites we also manage to reduce drastically the amount of illegal tipping throughout the country.”

What is a civic amenity site?

The WasteServ civic amenity sites, or centres for bulky waste, are controlled facilities where members of the public can bring and discard a variety of waste items separately. They allow the public to drive through, to separately dispose of different materials including electronic waste, used furniture items, garden waste, cardboard, mattresses, spent medicines and waste oils. Containers to receive paper, plastic, metal and glass waste fractions, which are normally deposited at the bring-in sites, are also available at these facilities.

The aim of these centres is to establish a service to centralise the collection of separated waste and, therefore, facilitate the recovery of secondary materials for recycling.

What can be disposed of at civic amenity sites?

One may dispose of the following items in separate containers:

• Recyclable waste such as paper, carton, glass, metal and plastic;

• Bulky waste such as furniture, mattresses, carpets, tiles and appliances;

• Garden waste;

• Oils – cooking oil and engine oil;

• Household hazardous waste, such as batteries including car batteries, solvents, neon tubes, medicines, chemicals, paints and varnishes, colourings, disinfectants, hair dye, nail polish and nail polish remover, fertiliser and fertiliser residues, pesticides and insecticides, turpentine, thermometers (with mercury), adhesives and glues;

• White goods such as fridges, cookers, freezers and microwaves;

• Electronic waste such as computers, monitors, mobile phones, printers, toys, transmitters, electronic tools, watches and clocks;

• Spent medicines and used syringes;

• Construction waste in small quantities and generated from DIY work;

• Cloths and textiles;

• Tyres.

Where are these civic amenity sites?

Operating civic amenity sites are situated at Mriehel, Maghtab and Hal Far, with another two which are currently being developed at Luqa and Tal-Kus, Gozo. With these five civic amenity sites around the Maltese islands, the general public will have a continuum of professional waste-related services that they can avail themselves from.

When do these facilities open?

The sites are open to receive and assist the public from 7.30am to 5.30pm daily, including weekends and public holidays.

How do you go about it?

The civic amenity complex itself makes things easy for the general public to avail itself from the facilities to dispose of any rejected bulky items. One can just drive in and dispose of any unwanted material in the containers, which are all labelled to make the process a simple one. These facilities are also manned by a trained workforce who will help the public, who can enter with their car into the site, to dispose of waste separately in these specific containers.

Introducing the New Hal Far civic amenity site

The Hal Far civic amenity site is the first of its kind in the southern part of the Island. It is also located in an Industrial Estate, close to the many factories operating there. The site is intended to cater for over 50,000 inhabitants from the neighbouring localities (approximately 13 per cent of the Maltese population) to collect circa 5,400 tonnes of domestic waste, separated by users onsite. The recyclable material will be directed for recycling through the services provided by various local companies.

On financing this project

Funds for this project were allocated from government-secured structural funding assistance from the European Union, for investment in the facilities required to enable the collection and pre-treatment of separated waste. This has avoided burdening local financing instruments for the capital investment required to enhance the management of this waste stream.

This project is in fact being part-financed through the European Union structural funds, with an estimated value of e4.6 million, and includes five facilities (four in Malta and one in Gozo). The government is co-funding 27 per cent of the project.

More information about WasteServ Malta Ltd. is available on the website www.wasteservmalta.com or by phoning the WasteServ freephone 8007-2200.

Article provided by WasteServ