27,000 Tonnes Of Ash: Malta’s Waste Plants Raise Health Concerns
The planned Thermal Treatment Facility and Waste-to-Energy plant are expected to generate around 27,000 tonnes of ash per year, according to estimates released by Energy Minister Miriam Dalli in response to a question posed by Nationalist Party MP Claudette Buttigieg.
“We are going to have two incinerators, which deal with two different types of waste… These incinerators are going to generate two types of ash, the fly ash, which goes out the chimney and which Wasteserv is saying, according to its studies, will be close to negligible due to the use of filters, and then there is the bottom ash, which is quite a substantial amount,” Buttigieg told The Malta Independent, as she remarked that “two massive incinerators burning 24/7 all-year-round” are going to generate a large amount of ash.
In a session in parliament, Buttigieg asked Minister Dalli to state how many tonnes of ash would be produced per day by the waste-to-energy and hazardous waste-to-energy and hazardous waste incinerators, as well as to indicate what plan Wasteserv has to dispose of toxic material from the sites without danger to residents’ health.
Dalli said that the Thermal Treatment Facility is expected to produce 850 tonnes of bottom ash and 170 tonnes of fly ash each year, while the Waste-to-Energy facility is expected to produce 22,700 tonnes of bottom ash and 3,400 tonnes of fly ash annually. She also stated that any fly ash created will need to be exported.
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With that being said, Dalli confirmed that the necessary tests will need to be carried out to determine what can be exported, disposed of locally, or potentially reused, with regards to the bottom ash.
Buttigieg’s concerns on the toxic fly ash came from Dalli’s comment which stated that since fly ash is so toxic, there is no facility in which it can be kept in Malta. Buttigieg went on to say that Dalli’s comment on how some of the bottom ash can be utilised depending on its qualities, as confirmed by tests, is something that the government should take very seriously. Buttigieg went on to discuss how reusing the ash can “open another pandora’s box” through the problems it might pose.
“How will this material be exported? Where will it be stored until it is exported? This is highly toxic. Where are we putting it? Is it going to be stored somewhere at Magħtab until it is exported?” questioned the PN MP, who added that there is no region near Magħtab where a ship can come in and load the ash, implying that the ash would have to be transported across the island in around 1,500 20-foot shipping containers.
According to Buttigieg, there is a group of residents made up of around 300 families from Naxxar, Magħtab, Birguma, San Pawl tat-Tarġa and Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq, who expressed their worries with regards to this situation. Buttigieg added that “you cannot be expected to shut up when living so close to something so dangerous”.
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