Malta Plans to Dig Deeper at Magħtab Landfill While Cutting Reliance on Landfilling

Malta's waste management company WasteServ has issued a tender for excavation works that would increase the capacity of an existing engineered landfill at Magħtab by more than 2.9 million cubic metres, MaltaToday reports. The paper puts that volume at roughly 1,100 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The project will run in two phases. It involves excavating a landfill built in 2004 and deepening it from 10 metres to 54 metres. The aim, according to WasteServ, is to expand capacity while making better use of infrastructure that already exists, instead of taking new land. WasteServ chief executive Richard Bilocca said the project limits environmental impact by using existing resources efficiently, and that it fits Malta's effort to reduce its reliance on landfilling. He also described it as a complement to WasteServ's wider investment in alternative waste treatment infrastructure.

Two reuse measures sit inside the plan. Waste removed to prepare for the excavation is being reused in a separate infrastructure project that aims to maximise the capacity of another existing landfill. That project uses a patented technique in which the material forms the foundation of a retaining wall around the landfill, which allows the slope angle to rise to about 70 degrees, compared with the conventional 30 degrees. Capacity is therefore expanded without extra land.

The second measure concerns the rock itself. Once the waste is removed and excavation of the bedrock begins, the selected contractor must process the extracted stone into construction products rather than discard it. WasteServ expects this to conserve natural resources and produce significant savings, because the value of the processed materials will offset a large part of the project's costs.

The article does not give the tender's value, its deadlines, the contractor or the timeline for each phase, so the scale of the investment and the date new capacity becomes available remain open. What it does set out is a clear logic: use the footprint Malta already has, turn the excavated stone into a resource, and keep building the alternative treatment capacity that should eventually reduce how much waste needs to be buried at all.

WasteServ describes the programme as part of a commitment to innovative, practical and sustainable solutions that maximise existing resources, reduce environmental impact and prepare Malta to manage its future waste needs.

Why it matters

On a small island, land is the scarcest input, so digging down rather than out is a pragmatic choice. The detail worth watching is the stone: if processed rock genuinely offsets much of the cost, the landfill becomes a quarry for the construction sector as well. That is circular thinking applied to an unglamorous asset.