Malta is slowly managing to increase the recycling of municipal waste but it needs to make “exceptional efforts” to meet rigid EU targets by 2020, according to a report published yesterday.
The study by the European Environment Agency says that until 2010 Malta was recycling 13 per cent of all solid waste collected – a substantial increase on 10 years earlier when recycling was almost nonexistent.
Following massive investment in the sector through EU funds, such as the conversion of the Sant’ Antnin facility in Marsascala, Malta is now recycling nearly 37kg of domestic waste per capita, against the four kilograms it used to recycle in 2001.
Despite the marked progress, the agency’s report says Malta is still among the bottom EU states in terms of recycling and has to make rapid progress to achieve its targets.
According to binding goals, by 2020 all member states have to recycle 50 per cent of household and similar waste.
An agency official told The Times that although Malta was expected to continue increasing the amount of waste it recycled, some major problems still had to be solved including the need for a new recycling plant, similar to the one in Marsascala, in the north of Malta.
One of the problems highlighted by the report refers to the high amount of waste being generated on the island.
Despite being the smallest EU member, Malta is still generating the sixth highest amount of waste. In 2010, the island generated 583kg of waste per capita, higher than the EU average of 503kg per capita. “Waste generation is another important aspect which has to be tackled in Malta. If you generate less waste, you have much less to recycle,” the official said.
The report lists Austria (63 per cent), Germany (62 per cent) and Belgium (58 per cent) as the countries in the EU that recycle most waste.
Overall, 35 per cent of municipal waste was recycled in the EU in 2010, a significant improvement over 2001 when it was 23 per cent.
Unlike in Malta, the generation of municipal waste by each EU citizen fell by 3.6 per cent between 2001 and 2010.
However, the report states that many countries will find it extremely difficult to meet the EU-mandated targets by 2020.
“Although five countries have already achieved the target, most will need to make extraordinary efforts to achieve this before the deadline,” the report says.
For example, at present Bulgaria and Romania seem to recycle small proportions of municipal waste, so to meet the target by 2020 they must increase recycling by more than four percentage points per year during this decade – something which no country managed to do between 2001 an 2011.