Solid waste generation in Malta jumps 17.6% to 3.5 million tonnes in 2024
Sharp rise driven by construction waste as recycling of mineral material declines
Malta generated 3.5 million tonnes of solid waste in 2024, marking a 17.6% increase over the previous year, with construction and demolition activity driving much of the surge.
Official figures released by the National Statistics Office on Tuesday show mineral waste rose by 21.8% compared to 2023. Non-mineral waste, which includes household and commercial refuse, increased more modestly by 2.2%.
Waste treatment also increased, reaching 3 million tonnes in 2024, up 14.6% year-on-year.
However, the data reveals contrasting trends in how waste is being managed.
Backfilling of mineral waste - the practice of using construction waste to refill quarries and excavated land - surged by 58%. Other disposals and landfilling also marked increases. At the same time, recycling within this category declined by 13.6%, suggesting a shift away from material recovery towards disposal through backfilling. Energy recovery showed the biggest drop in absolute terms (1,711 tonnes).
In 2024 disposal at sea and backfilling for the remaining mineral waste categories both increased by 175,010 tonnes and 3,806 tonnes, respectively.
Meanwhile, separate waste collection from households continued to rise.
Door-to-door collections increased across several streams, with an additional 2,444 tonnes of organic waste collected, 834 tonnes more in the grey bag and 299 tonnes more glass compared to the previous year.
The Beverage Container Refund Scheme also recorded growth, collecting an additional 887 tonnes of containers over 2023.
The highest increases were registered for non-hazardous mineral waste from construction and demolition which totalled 323,198 tonnes and non-hazardous dredging spoils which amounted to 131, 989 tonnes.
During 2024, increases were registered for the waste input into the Għallis landfill (9,435 tonnes), the Tal-Kus (Gozo) waste transfer station (829 tonnes) and the Sant’ Antnin Waste Treatment Plant (276 tonnes). On the other hand, decreases were registered at the Malta North Mechanical Biological Treatment plant (13,111 tonnes), and at the Marsa Thermal Treatment Facility (118 tonnes).