The Maltese Islands are formed almost completely out of limestone. Due to its particular geology, various erosional features have formed such as valleys, hills and cliffs and are an integral part of the Maltese Islands' rural landscape. This has proved to be of interest both for study and recreation. There are a number of very important archaeological areas, which have been kept as conservation sites. These include a number of catacombs, cart ruts, tombs, temples, caves and various other archaeological remains and structures. Malta has also been donated with a magnificent natural grand harbor where a sea passenger terminal and yachting facilities including marinas have been developed.

The surface area of the Maltese Islands is approx. 315 Km2 and the population is about 376,335 with an average population density of 1,409 per Km2 .

One of the main pillars of the Maltese industry is certainly the Tourist industry. There were 1,182,240 tourists in 1998 contributing to about Lm 254.448 million in gross income and with a total employment impact of 41,408. Never the less, the environment and other resources of the country are available primarily for the use and enjoyment of the indigenous population and therefore within this context the problem of waste generation must be tackled.

Local sources of pollution vary, the most common being construction debris and sewage. Both cause negative impact on land and marine related resources. 85% of sewage generated locally is flushed untreated far out to sea. However steps are being taken to have all generated sewage treated and thus providing a badly needed amount of second class water for irrigation as well as keeping the beaches and coastal zones clean.

During 1997, the Ministry for the Environment drafted a Waste Management Policy Document for the Maltese Islands. This policy document was published for public consultation. The main points that emerged from this document were the following:

• Waste management must be based on principles that go beyond public cleansing and littering.
• It must be based on principles that have been established on a global level, e.g. those of sustainability and the polluter pays principle.
• Local constraints must be taken into account in implementing such a policy, the small size of the Maltese Islands, the density of the population and the fact that most raw materials are imported.
• Sustainable waste management in most cases can be achieved by applying the following hierarchy of options: minimization of waste generation, separate collection, reuse and recovery of unavoidable waste and disposing of waste in sanitary landfills.
• Implementation of policy instruments, including the economic instruments, as a necessary prerequisite for the successful implementation of these options.

A word of caution needs to be said regarding waste statistics. In the Maltese Islands there are no accurate quantitative waste management data. Available data could at best be considered only as indicative. This is due to various factors mainly:

• There is no uniform way of keeping waste statistics. Waste generation is recorded in terms of skips, bags, kilograms, etc. This results in data not immediately meaningful or comparable.
• There is no system in place that tracks down waste from its point of generation to its point of final disposal.
• Considerable information on waste generation included in this document is based on data collected at the point of acceptance of public waste deposit sites. It must be pointed out that quantities of waste presented for disposal might not be exactly equivalent to quantities of waste generated. This is so because there might be waste that never reached an official waste deposit site. Such is the case of waste that has been illegally dumped or recycled at the point of generation.
• Only the Maghtab landfill and the Sant Antnin Composting plant are equipped with a weighbridge. While the weighbridge at the composting plant was operational since 1993, the one at Maghtab was fully operational since September 1997. In the absence of an operational weighbridge, statistics of waste accepted at waste deposit sites for the period prior to 1997 were based on records of vehicles entering the site, together with an estimation of their load. For 1997, the statistics have been based on extrapolation of weighbridge records for the period September-December.

During 1997 there were two authorised public waste deposit sites in Malta, the Maghtab landfill and the Sant Antnin Composting Plant. The Maghtab landfill comprises a total area of 1 million m2, of which 600,000 m2 had already been covered by waste.

Statistics of waste accepted at Maghtab and at the Sant Antnin Composting Plant permit an approximate differentiation to be made between Municipal waste, construction and demolition waste, Industrial waste and other waste.

Table 1. shows the quantity of waste accepted at these sites during the last 8 years.

Since it seems unlikely that a true decrease in industrial and construction and demolition (C&D) waste occurred during 1997, the reason for the apparent decrease must be sought elsewhere. The most likely reason could be related to the introduction of a landfill fee of LM0.35 per ton during 1997. This fee was levied on C&D waste, and on industrial waste, but not on MSW. It is probable that in order to avoid paying the fee, some waste collectors might have presented industrial, and C&D waste as MSW.

During 1997, building contractors were also urged to deposit their waste at licensed private waste deposit sites. This might also have accounted for a decrease in the deposition of this waste at Maghtab. Moreover, as invariably happened in other countries, the introduction of landfill fees might also have increased the practice of illegal dumping.