Moving towards resource efficiency through improved landfill management
The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) is participating in an Interreg Europe project bearing the name COCOON – Consortium for a Coherent European Landfill Management Strategy. As part of this project participating countries will exchange best practices on landfill waste management issues and create a handbook of guidelines to showcase the outputs of this project.
This project, which will run till 2022, has a total budget of €14M with around €176,000 going to the Maltese partners, ERA and Wasteserv Malta Ltd at a co-financing rate of 85%.
ERA will be holding its second stakeholder meeting a number of key local stakeholders on landfill management. The meeting, schedule for this week, will serve as a forum for stakeholders to share their views and expertise and hone in on common efforts that may be applied international to improve landfill management policies.
During this meeting, discussions will also result in the mapping and prioritization of landfills that are being considered by this project, including the Għallis Landfill. Landfills making this list will be considered a priority for further management and funding within Europe.
The COCOON project will contribute to an increase in local knowledge of landfill mining and rehabilitation, and are being seen as a possible means of improving the situation in Malta where the limited space makes landfilling a major challenge in the Maltese islands.
The views gathered through these meetings will be shared during the next Interregional Exchange of Experience meeting among the eight COCOON partners from Malta, Andalucia (Spain), Bradenburg (Germany), Cyprus, Flanders (Belgium), and the Netherlands. This international meeting will be held in Malta between 31st May and 2nd June.
