Terrible smells at an incinerator in Marsa led to workers vomiting and being hospitalised the Nationalist Party has claimed.
The PN said that the environmental regulator was well aware of the health problems caused by the “unbearable” stench at the Marsa thermal treatment facility, as it had received reports of workers falling ill due to air pollution.
It said that problems caused by the Marsa facility’s inadequate infrastructure was just one of the problems with Malta’s waste treatment facilities: damage to equipment in Magħtab meant that recyclable waste disposed of in grey bags was ending up being dumped in landfills, PN environment spokesman Jason Azzopardi said.
“I challenge the Environment Minister to open up [waste treatment facilities] Sant’ Antnin and Malta North (Magħtab) to the media and their cameras, so that people will know who is telling the truth and who is hiding it,” Dr Azzopardi said.
Marsa’s thermal treatment facility is mainly used to incinerate animal and mixed food waste, although other forms of waste, from health care to chemical wastes, are also disposed of at the facility.
The total volume of waste burned at the facility has been gradually declining over the previous five years. In 2017 – the most recent year for which data is available – 5,322 tonnes of waste was burned at the facility, with more than 90% of it being animal and mixed food waste.
Problems at Sant' Antnin
In his statement, Dr Azzopardi also highlighted a lack of progress in modernising a separate waste facility in Marsascala since a massive fire ripped through it in 2017.
Dr Azzopardi said that following that June 2017 fire, both Environment Minister Jose Herrera and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had pledged to build a new shed at the Sant’ Antnin waste treatment facility.
But two years on, there was no sign of any such shed and the upkeep of machinery at the facility was getting worse rather than better.
Three out of the plant’s four digesters were damaged and needed repairs, he said, and large pools of sludge were festering at the plant, stinking up the area.
The Sant’ Antnin plant handles a range of wastes, from sludges and liquid wastes to glass, paper and sorting residues generated from waste treatment operations.
In 2017, those sorting residues made up almost 70% of all waste handled by the facility, according to National Statistics Office data.
The government has said it plans to build a new incineration facility, ideally at Magħtab, which would allow it to incinerate much of the waste that ends up in landfills and convert it into energy instead.
Those plans will follow the introduction of compulsory waste separation at source, which was introduced last year.