Political parties in Malta are asking questions about waste stockpiling in relation to tyres.
Malta Faces Questions Over Waste Tyres
According to news reports from Malta, the country’s The Nationalist Party has questioned the time it is taking for the state agency Wasteserv to treat and export waste such as old tyres.
In a statement signed by Environment Spokesperson David Thake, the party said that this was detrimental to small and medium-sized businesses and a symptom of the government’s persistent lack of planning in the waste management sector.
Thake said that after a number of infrastructural projects, particularly in the roads, had to be stopped because of “the government’s persistent lack of planning in finding adequate space or methods to dispose of construction waste”, noting that this issue has now spread to other materials which state agency Wasteserv is responsible for treating.
“While Wasteserv works with private tyre waste treatment facilities, the government and authorities are obliged to ensure that once the tyres are treated in Malta, these should be exported immediately so that the capacity of Malta’s facilities is not filled to the point that they stop accepting material, as is in fact happening now,” Thake said.
“Instead of extra spending on positions of trust to core members, the government should ensure that everything is done to solve these major environmental problems which are hindering small and medium-sized businesses”, he added.
The statement reads that the PN will remain a voice in favour of environmental sustainability and will continue to work hand-in-hand with Maltese and Gozitan families and businesses so that waste management is taken more seriously and for the management by crisis workplan used by the Labour Government stops one for all.
In reply to a Parliamentary Question, Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia said WasteServ is in the process of a finalising a contract for the baling of tyres for export. In the meantime, the agency has an arrangement with another contractor that exports tyres. Farrugia said the number of used tyres had accumulated as a result of procedural delays in the finalisation of contracts.
Source:Malta Independent