Malta's rubbish pile: enough to fill 480 Olympic-sized swimming pools

Malta produced 2.7 million tonnes of solid waste in 2019, enough to fill 480 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The country generated a 2.6 per cent increase on all types of solid waste from the previous year, according to National Statistics Office data. Hazardous waste saw the most significant increase, shooting up by 34 per cent or more than 10,900 tonnes, mainly as a result of higher amounts of chemical waste. Non-hazardous waste went up by 2.2 per cent or almost 57,000 tonnes, with mineral waste from construction and demolition and the organic waste collection from households being the main contributors. Waste treatment registered an increase of 30 per cent or 704,000 tonnes, mainly due to an almost one million tonne increase in the recycling of mineral waste from construction and demolition. Backfilling in quarries decreased by 14.6 per cent or 205,776 tonnes but landfilling and incineration both increased by 54,531 tonnes and 1,102 tonnes respectively. No amount of waste was recorded as disposed at sea or used for the recovery of energy. From the waste that was sent overseas for treatment in 2019, 63 per cent underwent recycling processes and 35.6 per cent was...