A fire which gutted the Sant’Antnin waste plant in Marsascala last May has led to a piling up of rubbish at the Magħtab waste treatment facility, the Times of Malta has learnt.

According to a spokeswoman for the government’s waste treatment entity, Wasteserv, all recyclable waste was being received, separated and treated at the Magħtab plant.

She said that since the Magħtab plant was the only facility separating and treating recyclable waste, a backlog had accumulated.

Recyclable waste was being stacked in an area of the facility until it was transferred for separation and treatment, the spokeswoman said.

No waste was ending up at the nearby landfill, she added.

The spokeswoman said Wasteserv was looking into various short-term options to solve the backlog until a dedicated recyclables facility was set up.

Soon before the blaze at the Sant’Antnin plan, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced a seven-year plan to close it down.

Dr Muscat said there had to be a drastic improvement in waste separation across Malta to facilitate closing down the plant.

He said plans to close it have been in the pipeline for more than a year.

The massive fire led to the total devastation of the plant, which used to handle a significant volume of recyclable waste.

Despite the huge setback, the collection of household waste has not been affected. The Sant’Antnin plant was inaugurated in 2008 following a €27 million investment which was co-funded by the EU.

It helped increase waste separation in Malta and allowed for the recovery of recyclable materials for export, which reduced the use of the landfill site.

Last year, Eurostat ranked Malta in second place among EU countries in terms of municipal waste dumped in landfills in 2014. The data shows that 88 per cent of waste, mainly generated by households but also small businesses and public institutions in Malta, went into specially engineered landfills.

According to Eurostat, only eight per cent of Maltese waste was recycled and four per cent composted.

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