WasteServ marks ‘most successful year’ since its establishment in 2002

On Monday (today), WasteServ announced that 2023 was marked as its “most successful year since its inception in 2002.”

This was followed by the news that last year, WasteServ processed and returned more than 20,000 tonnes of recyclable waste for reuse in the economy, “the highest amount in Maltese history.”

Simultaneously, there was a 23 per cent reduction in the generation of mixed waste from households, representing the lowest amount received by WasteServ in the last 20 years.

During the press conference, WasteServ explained that last year, various materials were processed and exported to international markets to be transformed into other products. These included;

• 8,199 tonnes of paper and cardboard.

• 2,206 tonnes of various metals.

• 7,411 tonnes of glass.

• 1,422 tonnes of different types of plastic.

• 142 tonnes of wood.

• 350 tonnes of gypsum.

• 297 tonnes of foam.

Additionally, there was also a 35 per cent increase in organic waste received from households and the commercial sector when compared to 2022. This waste was converted into 4.1 million units of energy, powering 570 homes for a year.

Commenting on these figures, Minister for the Environment, Energy and the Regeneration of the Grand Harbour acknowledged the contribution of the public’s waste separation efforts.

“These encouraging results are a step in the right direction, but also confirm that our country can achieve more – we must continue working together to attain our ultimate objective of bringing down landfilling of waste to 10 per cent by 2035,” stated Minister Dalli.

These achievements, she states, “affirm the Government’s decisions and infrastructural investments” in recent years, including new plants for the sustainable and efficient processing of waste, the introduction of new initiatives such as differentiated gate fees for commercial waste, and the implementation of mandatory waste separation for all last year

On the other hand, WasteServ CEO Richard Bilocca explained that the 2023 results can also be attributed to the opening of two new facilities in the past year; the first one located at the ECOHIVE Complex and the second in Ħal Far.

“We also have several ongoing projects, including a new automated glass sorting line scheduled to be operational by mid-2024, and as part of the ECOHIVE Strategy, a skip management facility that will process bulky waste from open-topped skips, as well as a new organic waste processing facility to replace the current one,” explained Mr Bilocca.

He also added that work on the waste-to-energy project is also progressing as the plant’s excavation works were completed last year.

For more information on waste separation and WasteServ’s facilities visit the website.