Malta generated close to 350,000 tonnes of municipal waste in 2019, 7.3% more than in the previous year, according to Wasteserv and Environment and Resources Authority data.

Municipal waste is waste generated by households as well as other, similar waste generated by businesses. 

In 2019, the generation of municipal waste for every person that resided in Malta stood at 679kg of waste - 19kg more than the previous year, and 45kg more than each person generated in 2015. 

While municipal waste was up in 2019, the amount of unrecyclable waste thrown away in black bags was down. Black bag waste collection fell by 25,466 tonnes that year, according to data provided by the National Office of Statistics. 

Organic waste collection increased by 3.7 times or 19,975 tonnes over the amount collected in 2018. This was due to the fact that 2019 was the first full calendar year during which the organic waste collection took place following a nationwide roll-out at the end of October 2018.

Another notable increase of 9,031 tonnes (36.3%) was recorded in the grey/green bag and glass collection. 

Municipal waste treatment

The amount of municipal waste treated in 2019 increased by 52,791 tonnes (17.6%) over 2018, reaching 352,018 tonnes.

The share of landfilling from the total municipal waste treated stood at 91.1%; up from the 89.4% level recorded a year before.

When compared to 2018, the share of municipal waste recycling dropped by 1.7 percentage points to 8.9 of the total municipal waste treatment.

Almost two thirds (62.8%) of municipal waste recycled in 2019 was made up of paper and cardboard, followed by glass and plastic at 11% and nine per cent respectively.