How pig hair from the Marsa abattoir will be recycled to make stronger concrete

Pig hair and bone waste from the public abattoir will start being recycled and used to create stronger and more sustainable concrete.

The project, titled RACE (Recycling Abattoir By-Products for Construction Materials Engineering), was announced on Tuesday.

It is a collaboration between the public abattoir and the University of Malta’s Faculty for the Built Environment, through €350,000 in EU funding.

The abattoir’s director general, Stefan Cachia, said the project is expected to eventually save around 3.5 tonnes of waste per week.

Cachia noted that the same team had previously collaborated on the restoration of the abattoir’s water tower, where stainless steel from recycled towers was mixed into the concrete.

This made the concrete self-healing and significantly stronger, reaching a strength of about C200, compared to the usual C45. He added that similar results are expected from the new project.

How will it work?

Civil engineering professor Ruben Paul Borg explained that the team conducted studies using pig bristle fibres, bone powder, and biochar produced from hair and bone waste.

The studies found that pig bristle fibres naturally reinforce concrete, while bone powder acts as an effective filler. But the most promising results came from biochar, which was shown to partially replace cement and improve the concrete’s durability.

Borg acknowledged that concrete is inherently unsustainable, contributing around 8% of global CO₂ emissions and generating substantial waste. This project, however, aims to make the material more environmentally friendly.

From left to right: Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, Anton Refalo, Stefan Cachia.

European Funds Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi praised the research and highlighted that it was carried out using agricultural funds. “We are giving value to something that costs us money to dispose of. Instead of viewing it as waste, we are viewing it as a resource,” he said.

Agriculture Minister Anton Refalo also praised the project for driving innovative research that supports sustainability. “It’s a huge investment not only in us but in future generations,” he said.

In 2021, the local abattoir installed new equipment to treat animal by-products, enabling the relaunch of traditional meat products such as the tripe (kirxa).