Updated 6.55pm, adds PN statement

The government will take up less land than originally planned for new waste management facilities in Magħtab, Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia said on Wednesday.

The decision follows protests by farmers in February.

The project will now have a footprint of 82,000 square metres as opposed to the original proposal of 279,000 square metres.

The original plan to turn 150,000 square metres of land in an extended landfill has been shelved. Instead, Wasteserv, the government's waste management company, is aiming to have a new waste-to-energy plant in place ahead of the original schedule and current landfill sites within the existing footprint will be used 'to their full potential'. 

All waste management activities will be concentrated at Magħtab and all other facilities, including the Sant-Antnin plant will be 'handed back to the people as green areas', Farrugia said.

He did not give any timelines. In 2017, then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had said that the Sant' Antnin plant would be phased out over seven years. 

The new waste-to-energy plant, he said, would significantly limit landfilling volumes.

The government will also set up a new plant for the management of dry recyclable material, and a plant to treat organic waste to extract energy and produce compost for use in agriculture. The abattoir waste incinerator, which is also used for clinical waste, will be replaced. 

“Malta will finally be in a position to stop its predominant reliance on landfilling and to aggressively turn waste into precious resources, be it energy, fertile agricultural resources, or upcycled products,” he said. 

Wied Fulija in Żurrieq, Qortin in Gozo and Sant’Antnin in Marsascala will be given back to the people in the form of green areas.

Farrugia said that studies on the waste-to-energy plant (an incinerator), including detailed environmental studies are already underway and the procurement process has been launched in the EU official journal.

PN statement

The PN's spokesman for agriculture, Edwin Vassallo, said farmers were still calling on the government to revise its decision and the Nationalist Party would continue working for no agricultural land to be taken.

Farmers wanted the government to implement its project on land already occupied by Wasteserv in Magħtab.