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Due to their chemical composition and/or other properties, hazardous wastes may pose substantial risks to human health and the environment if not properly managed or released into the environment. Hazardous wastes are generated from many sources, ranging from industrial manufacturing processes to commercial products containing hazardous substances which are discarded after use. Hazardous waste can come in different forms, namely liquid, solid, gas, or sludge.

Some examples of hazardous wastes are:

• Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE);
• Spent batteries and accumulators;
• Chemicals and empty chemical containers;
• Pharmaceutical waste;
• Pesticides;
• Waste from petroleum refining;
• Asbestos;
• Waste lubricating oils.

The properties which render waste hazardous are set out in Schedule 3 of the Waste Regulations, which are further clarified in Commission Decision 2000/532/EC establishing a List of Waste (Click here to learn more on the Waste Classification and the European List of Waste). Due to the potential threats to human health and the environment, hazardous wastes are subject to a strict control regime covering their entire life-cycle, from generation to final disposal or recovery (the so-called “from cradle to grave” approach).

The Waste Regulations include specific obligations concerning labelling and packaging of hazardous wastes, record keeping as well as monitoring and control procedures on transfers of such wastes within the Maltese Islands. The said Regulations also prohibit mixing of hazardous wastes.

Bio-waste is addressed within a number of legal instruments. The Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) defines bio-waste as biodegradable garden and park waste, food and kitchen waste from households, offices, restaurants, wholesale, canteens, caterers and retail premises and comparable waste from food processing plants. The Landfill Regulations (S.L.549.29) go further and define biodegradable waste as any waste that is capable of undergoing anaerobic or aerobic decomposition, such as food and garden waste, and paper and paperboard.

The recently amended Directive 2008/98/EC addresses general waste management requirements, which also contain specific bio-waste related elements (new recycling targets for household waste, which can include bio-waste) and a mechanism allowing the setting of quality criteria for compost (end-of-waste criteria). It further provides that by 2023, Member States need to ensure that bio-waste is either separated and recycled at source, or is collected separately and not mixed with other types of waste.

The main negative environmental impact of bio-waste is the production of methane from such waste decomposing in landfills, which accounts for a portion of total greenhouse gas emissions. In order to minimise the negative impacts from bio-waste in landfills, the Landfill Regulations oblige the Maltese Islands to by 2020 reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) landfilled to 35% of total BMW generated in 2002.

Separate collection of the organic waste from households was introduced in 2015 as a pilot project in nine localities in Malta and the entire region of Gozo. It has since been introduced on a national scale since the last quarter of 2018. The frequency of kerbside collection per locality is set out in Schedule 3 of S.L.549.40 – the Abandonment, Dumping and Disposal of Waste in Streets and Public Places or Areas Regulations.

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment is considered to be one of the fastest growing waste streams in the EU.  The Waste Management (Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Regulations, S.L. 549.89, which brings into effect the provisions of Directive 2012/19/EU, aims to prevent or reduce the negative environmental effects resulting from the generation and management of WEEE by focusing on the sustainable production and consumption through the prevention, re-use, recycling and other forms of recovery of WEEE, with the objective to reduce the disposal of such waste.

These regulations also seek to improve the environmental performance of all operators involved in the life cycle of EEE such as producers, distributors, consumers and operators involved in the collection and treatment of WEEE.

The WEEE Regulations apply to all EEE which depend, generate, transfer or measure electric current or electromagnetic fields with a voltage rating not exceeding 1,000V for AC and 1,500V for DC.

Producers of EEE are required to provide for the financing of the collection, treatment, recovery, treatment, recovery and environmentally sound disposal of WEEE from private households and from users other than private households. Producers of EEE may wish to fulfil their obligations either individually or by participating in a WEEE Compliance Scheme.  For further details on obligations of producers of EEE refer to click here.

Categories of EEE (Non-exhaustive List) covered by the WEEE Regulations:

• Temperature exchange equipment;
• Screens, monitors, and equipment containing screens having a surface  greater than 100 cm2;
• Lamps;
• Large equipment with any external dimension more than 50cm;
• Small equipment with no external dimension more than 50cm; and
• Small equipment with no external dimension more than 50cm; and
• Small IT and telecommunication equipment with no external dimension more than 50cm.

For further details on the WEEE Regulations refer to the FAQs.

For further information related to registration and renewals with the Authority as well as guidance for self-compliant producers and producer responsibility organisations [click here]