Wasteserv defends use of temporary Iklin WEEE storage site

Wasteserv Malta has defended the use of a site in Iklin to temporarily store electronic goods, after the issue was flagged in Parliament by a PN MP.

Last week, Jason Azzopardi said tons of white goods are being stored in an illegal facility run by state agency Wasteserv and in blatant breach of environmental and planning laws. He said the amount of goods being stored at the site is much larger than what is allowed in the permit.

In a statement, the national waste management agency said the collection, management and disposal of WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) is regulated by the Waste Management (Electrical And Electronic Equipment) Regulations, which state that importers of electrical and electronic equipment are legally responsible for ensuring that they export for recycling at least 50 per cent of the WEEE they put on the market as part of the Extended Producer Responsibility principle.

Given that it is not economically viable for each importer to export their share of WEEE, two schemes (WEEE Malta and WEEE Recycle), regulated by the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA), were introduced to export items for recycling on behalf of the importers. There were several occasions whereby the schemes, on behalf of the importers, were unable to export WEEE as stipulated in the regulations.

Currently, local councils offer the free bulky waste collection service. Such refuse is then transferred to Civic Amenity Sites operated by WasteServ. Over and above this, bulky waste, including WEEE, may also be disposed of ta the sites directly by domestic users. Wasteserv’s operations at such sites involves separating the waste and, through the scheme, requesting the collection of WEEE accumulated each day. However, since WEEE schemes do not collect EEE waste equipment on a regular basis, such material ends up accumulating at the Civic Amenity Sites until they reach saturation. In order for Wasteserv to continue providing such a service, it has to resort to moving the WEEE to other locations.

Wasteserv has always experienced these issues and other temporary storage sites have been used before. Most recently, a temporary site could be found adjacent to the Ħal Far CA site, which today is being transformed into a Multi Material Recovery Facility.

It is pertinent to highlight that although Wasteserv has to resort to storing the WEEE (being the operator of last resort), it is still the responsibility of the schemes to export their share of WEEE. As schemes did not export the WEEE being stored at Wasteserv, in such circumstance and proactively, it exported huge amounts of WEEE at a substantial cost.

Noting that the schemes were experiencing many issues, Wasteserv planned a facility in Ħal Far which would enable it accept enough levels of WEEE to make collective export more economically viable. To this end, the company applied for EU funding and the MMRF project in Ħal Far was approved.

Once the application was approved and the tender for the facility issued, the contractor had a tight time frame by which they needed to start the project. Wasteserv was then faced with another major challenge – that of clearing the WEEE stored in Ħal Far to make way for the project. EU funding would have been placed at a considerable risk if the site was not cleared in time. Consequently, Wasteserv researched whether there were any warehouses large enough to take up the WEEE (around 4,000 square metres were required). It transpired that there were no feasible options except the yard in Iklin and, due to tight time frames, a direct order was issued in line with procurement regulations.

Wasteserv exported a total of 516.9 tons between January and September 2019. Moreover, there are currently 525.4 tons of WEEE stored at the Iklin storage facility. The ERA permit specifies that storage of hazardous waste may not exceed 49 tons at any given time.

The material which is being stored at the Iklin site is not deemed to be highly flammable as it is very difficult for the material to self-ignite. Furthermore, the material is being stored at a sufficient distance from the batching plant. This means that it is unlikely that a fire at one end can affect the other.

Wasteserv says it has submitted an application to Planning Authority and also applied for an IPPC for a warehouse within the Iklin facility. This is being done until the Multi Material Recovery Facility in Ħal Far is operational. The recently launched infrastructural project with an investment of €21.8M will be ready within two years. This facility will process different types of materials apart from WEEE.