Environment Minister José Herrera will be following through on his warning to quarries and recommending to Cabinet that some of them be taken over in a bid to solve the construction waste crisis.
Dr Herrera told Times of Malta on Monday that a survey on the status of over 140 quarries was being finalised and he would be presenting the results, as well as his recommendation to Cabinet, in the coming days.
The survey focuses primarily on quarries situated on government-owned land. It will detail what volume of the quarries can be used for the purposes of dumping inert waste from building sites, as well as which operators were breaching or honouring their construction waste licences.
The Environment Ministry would run the operation in the name of those quarry owners who did not wish to adhere to the terms of their operating licence.
They would be paid a set rate and those who did not agree with the price could contest it in court, he added.
Whether operators like it or not, I have this power and I’m going to use it
“It was time for me to take drastic and radical measures,” Dr Herrera said.
“I have met and made informal agreements with quarry operators several times. We have agreed to prices and I’ve offered tax rebates to persuade them but after a while everything reverts back to the way it was.
“This situation is untenable. It is untrue that there are no licensed quarries able to take in construction waste. There is a reluctance by quarry operators to receive this waste.”
The minister also said he was seeking legal advice on the possibility of setting a fixed price.
Last month, quarry operators receiving construction waste nearly doubled the price, from €8 to €15 per tonne, in breach of an agreement reached last February between the government and the Malta Developers Association.
“Whether operators like it or not, I have this power and I’m going to use it,” the minister said.
“The Maltese population and the construction industry cannot continue to suffer climbing prices on the whims of those who think only of making money and nothing else.”
The construction waste crisis came to a head last week, when the MDA said that some 400 excavation and demolition contractors were facing a “total standstill” in works, as no legal dumping solutions could be found at any price.
Asked whether a land reclamation project was on the cards as a possible solution to construction waste, Dr Herrera said that a study on the topography of the Maltese seabed was in its final stages.
The government, he said, was looking into whether a reclamation project could occur without harming the environment.