All of Malta’s grey bags make their way to the Magħtab plant every Thursday, where they are mechanically opened and loaded onto a series of conveyor belts along which the waste is separated into different categories.

Workers first remove the plastic bags, allowing the waste to flow into a ballistic separator which separates 2D from 3D objects. Thin and flat objects, like paper and cardboard, are directed in one direction, and containers, like bottles and cans, go another way.

Strong magnets then pick up the metal cans, leaving the plastic containers which, in turn, make their way onto another conveyor belt and into a machine that is able to detect each kind of plastic in a split second.

A jet of air blows clear plastic in one container and coloured plastic in another. Clear and coloured plastic are baled and sold for recycling separately.

Waste then makes its way onto other conveyor belts that are manned by workers who manually sort out the remaining objects that manage to escape the eye of the highly sophisticated machines.

The separated waste is finally pressed extremely tightly into bales weighing around 800 kilograms each, and sold overseas for recycling.

“We get paid for the waste we export, and we have a very good international reputation for exporting high-quality recyclable waste,” WasteServe CEO Richard Bilocca told Times of Malta.

“Until some years ago, around 95 per cent of Malta’s waste would be dumped in landfills. We’ve brought that down by 10 per cent, but we must bring it down to just 10 per cent by 2035. So, we have improved, but there is still more to go.”