Over the past seven years, amounts of managed solid waste have shown fluctuating trends, with the highest amount being recorded in 2004 when 3.1 million tonnes were deposited into treatment and disposal sites. Non-hazardous mineral waste and debris, which is mainly composed of construction and demolition material, made up the bulk of generated solid waste.

Up to 2003, all solid waste was disposed of in the public landfills of Maghtab and Qortin. In the period under review, the composition of land-filled waste changed substantially. While in 2000 84 per cent of land-filled waste consisted of construction debris, this dropped to 2 per cent in 2007. On the other hand, the share of land-filled municipal solid waste rose to 64 per cent in 2007. This shift was due to changes in the waste disposal policy, whereby non-hazardous mineral waste began to be diverted from public landfills to disused quarry sites. Non-hazardous mineral waste arising out of large construction projects is also dumped at sea in permitted areas.

Another aspect of solid waste management is the treatment of waste, which is carried out at the Sant’ Antnin Waste Treatment Plant. In 2002 treated-waste amounts made up 6 per cent of managed solid waste, excluding the mineral and debris waste streams. By 2006 this had risen to 17 per cent. This increasing trend was interrupted in 2007 owing to refurbishment works at the Waste Treatment Plant.

Separate collection of waste fractions gained momentum with the introduction of bring-in sites in July 2003. This type of waste collection has been on the rise ever since, with amounts increasing threefold from 2004 to 2007.

Towards the end of 2006 the first Civic Amenity site was opened and one year later three such sites were operational. These sites, which cater for the collection of bulky-waste fractions from households, collected over 8,000 tonnes of waste in their first year of operation.

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