The Sant’Antnin waste treatment facility will be closed and its operations will move to a new facility at Magħtab, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat pledged this morning.

The shift will happen over a seven-year process, Dr Muscat told a news conference in Marsascala, underlining the need for a major improvement in waste separation across the country.

"We would have loved to say we will close in facility in three or four years but it’s not realistic partly because there are systems that the country must get used to. We need to roll out on a national level the system of different bags for waste and there must be a big culture change in how we separate waste in our homes," he said.

Plans to shift waste treatment operations away from the often criticised Sant’Antnin plant in Marsascala had been in the pipeline for over a year, he said.

"We have credibility. We carried out initiatives which had been in the pipeline for 25 years - we close the Marsa power station, we stopped the use of heavy fuel oil for our power station, and yesterday we started dismantling the Birżebbuġa tanks."

Dr Muscat acknowledged the criticism levelled at his government over its lack of environmental sensitivity.

He said that environmental protection would no longer remain at the discretion of the government but it will be enshrined in the constitution. Moreover, he pledged that no government projects would be started on Outside Development Zone land.