A ‘mountain’ of mattresses has piled up at WasteServ, despite a €20 million plant that was opened two months ago to recycle them.

Multiple sources said ‘hundreds’ of used mattresses have been dumped at WasteServ’s Sant’Antnin plant in Marsascala this summer after equipment at a newly opened recycling plant in Ħal Far developed faults shortly after it opened.

Thermal readings of the highly flammable mattresses are being taken regularly throughout the day, WasteServ said.

In reply to questions, WasteServ would not give details on the damages at the new plant but said “any necessary repairs undertaken so far have been covered by the contractor at his expense, in line with the provisions stipulated in the contract”.

Some jablo and wood, which is meant to be processed at the new Ħal Far plant, is also being stored at Marsascala. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

The new Ħal Far EU co-funded Multi-Material Recovery Facility, which was described by the EU’s environment commissioner as an “enormous step in the right direction”, was opened on June 15 and is meant to churn through mattresses, tyres, wood, jablo or polystyrene and electronics and separate the different materials, which are then packed and exported for recycling.

It is unclear how much of the Ħal Far equipment developed faults and to what extent this has led to the backlog.

But in its replies, WasteServ suggested the plant has not fully halted operations and said it already sold its first batch of mattress springs in the form of metal for recycling and will sell 75 tonnes of baled and wrapped mattress foam this month.  It also said the Ħal Far plant processed 445 tonnes of wood last month.

WasteServ said it has already sold its first batch of mattress springs in the form of metal for recycling. Photo: WasteServ

WasteServ said the mattresses at Marsascala have been piling up since January, when gate fees for mixed waste were raised significantly and more mattresses began to be segregated at source and were stored in Marsascala in anticipation of the new plant. And now that the plant has opened, the agency just needs to deal with the backlog.

It said that “downtime of specific equipment does occur from time to time, especially during the initial months of operation. However, such occurrences are common for all industrial facilities, and the respective contracts include measures to safeguard the interests of the contracting authority in such eventualities”.

Some metal extracted from 445 tonnes of processed wood. Photo: WasteServ

WasteServ said it saw more than a “600% increase in the collection of source-segregated mattresses”, exceeding its initial expectations.

“While this stockpile is gradually diminishing, the Ħal Far facility primarily focuses on processing incoming new materials, which continue to increase. However, the backlog will be addressed in the upcoming weeks.”

But multiple sources said there were no mattresses at the Marsascala plant during winter and truckloads of them only started to arrive this summer.

WasteServ said it will sell 75 tonnes of baled and wrapped mattress foam this month. Photo: WasteServ

When the new Ħal Far plant was inaugurated in June, reporters were told it would process 15,000 tonnes a year, operating for 10 hours a day from Monday to Friday. WasteServ’s circular economy chief officer said it could even operate 24 hours a day if there is demand.

Meanwhile, the ‘mountain’ of demand awaits on the other side of the island, in Marsascala, where the accumulating mattresses are increasingly becoming a fire hazard.

Mattresses are classified as highly flammable objects, and the ones in Marsascala lie in the same plant that had been engulfed in raging fires in 2017.

WasteServ said it has a standby firefighting system in place in case of emergency.