Għallis, the last remaining engineered landfill in Malta is filling to the brim and it is a matter of months, not years, until it reaches its capacity and there will be nowhere else to dump our municipal waste. This does not come as a surprise – landfills are ultimately a temporary solution to the chronic (but abatable) problem of waste production.

As a result of this impending closure of Għallis, the government intends to implement a waste-to-energy scheme, in which domestic waste will be used to produce energy. This is a bit of a universal trend – the incineration industry has jumped on the “green” bandwagon, marketing incineration and thermal conversion as environmentally friendly, and going as far as labelling it as renewable energy.

There are several issues associated with waste-to-energy, on of which is residual material which is generated. The waste thermal treatment is intended to be used only on waste which is not deemed recyclable, however, processing this waste will not rid us of it completely. Sweden, touted as one of the greenest countries, in 2015 had been found dumping toxic incinerator ash off the coast of a Norwegian island. Incinerator ash, which is loaded with pollutants like dioxins and heavy metals, has to be disposed of in a landfill. So this essentially brings us back to the initial issue—the excessive amount of waste which is being landfilled.

Albeit the substance being burnt is a “free” resource, the incineration plants themselves are costly to run and maintain, even more than coal-powered plants (not that we’re advocating the use of coal!). In fact, this has led to countries to resort to importing waste from neighbouring countries in order to run the incineration plants cost-effectively.

Admittedly, utilising waste for energy is an improvement on dumping waste in engineered landfills. However, if this scheme is implemented in Malta, it could potentially encourage a lifestyle of waste generation amongst a population that is already predisposed to it. Eurostat data from 2015 puts Malta as the 5th largest generator of waste per capita, with more than 600 kg of waste generated per person annually, compared to an EU average of 477 kg. In addition, Malta was the country with the lowest recycling/composting figures, with nearly 90% of waste being landfilled.

Malta will still be moving towards reaching its recycling targets and the waste-to-energy schemes would be used on the remaining non-recyclable waste. It is important to note that there is a substantial amount of waste produced that is currently not recyclable, either due to the material being soiled (such as take-away food packaging and toothpaste tubes) or due to the use of materials that cannot be classified into a specific recycling material stream, such as multi-layered material. The latter is common in food packaging that is composed of numerous layers of different materials, such as plastic and foil (used in snack wrappers) or paper/cardboard coated with a plastic film (used in juice cartons and take-away beverage cups). If the thermal-treatment schemes are implemented, Malta would run the risk of making this waste “invisible” that can lead to further lack of responsibility from households and enterprises in terms of their internal waste management methods and purchasing choices.

With the current figures Malta does not afford to accommodate nonchalance towards the waste problem, even if recycling targets are reached. Measures such as the introduction of deposit return scheme for plastic bottles is an effective tool to ensure that this resource is recycled and not wasted. These schemes should be implemented with awareness raising on reduction of waste if we aim to move towards a zero-waste mentality. Ultimately, the resources on this planet are limited, and paper, plastics, metals and alloys, cannot continue being produced (or recycled) indefinitely. Reducing the use of materials and resources is crucial to ensure a sustainable use of our planets limited resources.

As consumers we have a power that we can exercise with every choice we make. Being mindful of the products we buy and the way we live our lives can drastically reduce waste generation. Friends of the Earth Malta is embarking on a month-long plastic-free adventure running through all of October. We confident that this effort to live plastic-free will help us identify ways to reduce our dependence on plastics—with small shifts in our purchasing habits we aim to reduce our overall waste generation. We encourage you to join us in this effort. We will be sharing with you our findings and trips and tricks throughout the month, with more detailed info in November. Feel free to join us and ditch your plastics for October.