Claims of construction waste dumping at sea refuted by ERA

The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) has denied claims that construction and demolition waste is being dumped in the open sea as Malta grapples with an escalating dispute over its disposal.

As quarry owners are battling for an increase in the cost of waste they receive, industry sources told The Shift that some construction waste is being redirected to the Malta Freeport, where ongoing land reclamation works are underway.

Quarry operators continue to restrict access to quarries used as dumping sites for construction waste in a dispute with the government over disposal tariffs.

Sources alleged that while some waste on site at the Freeport was being used for the land reclamation project, some waste was also being loaded onto barges departing from the Freeport and Marsa and subsequently disposed of at sea.

When confronted with these claims, ERA rejected suggestions that waste was being dumped at sea.

An ERA spokesperson confirmed that material was being used as part of authorised works at the Freeport but insisted that all operations were taking place within the parameters of existing permits.

“Operations involving the disposal of material at the Freeport have always been carried out in accordance with existing permits and their respective conditions and form part of established, authorised operations,” the spokesperson said.

ERA stressed that the disposal of clean geological material at sea has been regulated since 1997 and that such projects have long been subject to environmental assessment and permitting requirements.

The authority also highlighted improvements in waste recovery rates, noting that Malta has consistently recycled more than half of locally generated construction and demolition waste in recent years and has surpassed its 70% recovery target.

ERA did not comment on the broader dispute currently unfolding between quarry owners and the government over the disposal of construction waste.

The dispute, which sources said was deliberately kept out of the public eye during the recent electoral campaign, remains unresolved.

Industry sources told The Shift that operators of several quarries licensed to accept construction waste have informally coordinated restrictions on incoming material while demanding a substantial increase in disposal tariffs.

Quarry owners are reportedly seeking to raise charges from the long-established benchmark of €12 per tonne to €20- €22 per tonne, an increase of 67%- 83%.

The dispute echoes a similar issue in 2019 and 2020, when disagreements over disposal capacity and pricing threatened to disrupt the sector before government intervention resulted in the current €12-per-tonne benchmark tariff.