Updated 2.30pm

The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) has approved an application for an IPPC permit for a new by-product treatment facility to reduce and reuse waste generated by the aquaculture industry.

The facility will be the first of its kind in Malta and is intended to reduce fish farm waste in Maltese waters, by processing by-products such as tuna offal into fish meal and fish oil.

Those processed products will then be exported. 

"Such facilities further contribute towards a circular system with minimal to zero waste generation, whilst augmenting the environmental sustainability of this important sector of Malta’s blue economy," the ERA said.

The waste processing facility, which is currently being built in Ħal Far, is run by Aquaculture Resources Ltd - a company made up of Malta's main fish farming players, with Charles Azzopardi of Azzopardi Fisheries, Saviour Ellul of MFF Limited and Joseph Caruana of Fish and Fish Ltd among the shareholders. 

Economy Minister Silvio Schembri visited the construction site earlier this year and described it as an example of a new industrial sector that Malta was developing 

The Planning Authority approved the development of the facility in March 2021 and the operators, Aquaculture Resources Ltd, subsequently applied for the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) permit required to operate it.   

Before determining the application, ERA consulted statutory bodies and launched a public consultation. No objections were filed.  

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