Malta produced 2.7 million tonnes of solid waste in 2019, enough to fill 480 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The country generated a 2.6 per cent increase on all types of solid waste from the previous year, according to National Statistics Office data.
Hazardous waste saw the most significant increase, shooting up by 34 per cent or more than 10,900 tonnes, mainly as a result of higher amounts of chemical waste.
Non-hazardous waste went up by 2.2 per cent or almost 57,000 tonnes, with mineral waste from construction and demolition and the organic waste collection from households being the main contributors.
Waste treatment registered an increase of 30 per cent or 704,000 tonnes, mainly due to an almost one million tonne increase in the recycling of mineral waste from construction and demolition.
Backfilling in quarries decreased by 14.6 per cent or 205,776 tonnes but landfilling and incineration both increased by 54,531 tonnes and 1,102 tonnes respectively.
No amount of waste was recorded as disposed at sea or used for the recovery of energy.
From the waste that was sent overseas for treatment in 2019, 63 per cent underwent recycling processes and 35.6 per cent was landfilled.
During 2019, the waste input into the Tal-Kus (Gozo) waste transfer station increased by 3.4 per cent, or 584 tonnes.
Increases of 168 tonnes, 203 tonnes and 17,191 tonnes were also recorded at the Marsa Thermal Treatment Facility, the Sant’ Antnin Waste Treatment Plant and the Għallis landfill respectively.
Conversely, the input of waste at the Malta North Mechanical-Biological Treatment plant declined by 12.6 per cent or 11,352 tonnes.
In 2019, the separate collection of waste fractions experienced increases across all collection modes except for bring-in sites.
The highest increase, at 19,975 tonnes, was recorded in the organic waste collection from households, since 2019 was the first full calendar year during which the nationwide collection of this waste took place.
This was followed by the collection of dry recyclables from the grey/green bag and glass collection, which increased by 9,031 tonnes or 36.3 per cent
Waste collected from civic amenity sites rose by 4,470 tonnes or 14.7 per cent, while waste collected from bring in sites dipped by 125 tonnes or 3 per cent.