National Statistics Office - Malta

Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries Statistics

National Statistics Office, Lascaris, Valletta VLT 2000, Malta

Statistics on waste generation and treatment are collected on the basis of the Regulation on waste statistics (EC) No. 2150/2002, amended by Commission Regulation (EU) No. 849/2010 (WStatR).

Statistics on waste generation are broken down by sources (18 business activities according to the NACE classification plus households) and by waste categories according to the European Waste Classification for statistical purposes (EWC-Stat). Waste treatment statistics are also reported by waste categories and broken down into five treatment types (recovery, incineration with energy recovery, other incineration, disposal on land and land treatment). All data are reported in tonnes of waste.

These statistics are sourced mainly from administrative sources and statistical estimations. Waste treatment statistics only cover those facilities that carry out final treatment on the geographical territory of the country. A significant amount is exported for treatment and this contributes to the discrepancy between waste generation and treatment statistics.

All waste-related data is collected according to LoW codes which are then converted into EWC-Stat v.4 codes as per Annex III of the WStatR.

In the waste generation dataset, the data is classified into 51 waste categories according to the EWC-Stat classification and broken down by economic activities (18 NACE aggregates plus households as specified in Annex I of the WStatR).

In the waste treatment dataset, the data is also classified by the same EWC-Stat waste categories and broken down by treatment type (6 aggregates of disposal and recovery operations as specified in Annex II of the WStatR). In both datasets a distinction between hazardous and non-hazardous waste is made.

The dataset on waste treatment facilities is broken down into the measurement variable (number of facilities, capacity) and waste operations. Data for MALTA at the NUTS2 level is national data.

Waste generation statistics cover all economic activities which are classified into 18 NACE aggregates and Households. Waste treatment statistics cover final treatment taking place on the geographical territory of the country and exclude pre-treatment operations.

Waste: any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard.

Sludges (including dredging spoils) are measured in tonnes of dry matter.

Data is sourced from waste treatment facilities. For major facilities weighbridge reports are made available. These reports enable the identification of waste sources which for various records goes down to the enterprise level. The NACE code of enterprises is sourced from the Business Register. The main sources of this register are the VAT Department and the Malta Financial Services Authority records. Other sources are used for areas of health, education and non-profit organisations which are included in the Business Register.

In the waste generation dataset, all national waste generated is included.

In the waste treatment dataset, all waste which undergoes final treatment on the geographical territory of the country is included. Waste exports are thus excluded, and waste imports are included (Malta has no imports of waste).

All data is at the national level. The data on waste treatment facilities is at the NUTS 2 level which for MALTA is national data.

In all three datasets, the data is for the 2020 reference year.

Not applicable.

The major providers for the 2020 WStatR data are WasteServ Malta Ltd. (WasteServ), and the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA).

WasteServ is Malta’s major waste management agency which is government owned. Its key responsibility is to develop and operate waste management facilities in order to implement the government’s waste strategy. These waste management facilities are mainly of two types: waste collection depots, which comprise civic amenity sites; and waste treatment facilities which include the landfill for non-hazardous waste, two Mechanical-Biological Treatment (MBT) plants (Sant’ Antnin plant and Malta North plant), the Gozo waste transfer station and sorting plant, and the incinerator. WasteServ supplies data about its operations both to ERA and NSO.

ERA’s Compliance and enforcement unit is entrusted with environmental permitting and compliance auditing of industrial and waste management installations. It supplies data to NSO about the operations of inert waste treatment sites which are permitted for the backfilling and recycling of inert mineral waste. ERA’s Ambient Quality and Waste Unit is responsible for air quality, waste management, radiation, noise and soil. This Unit provides NSO with the National waste inventory for waste generation and treatment.

NSO’s Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries statistics Unit is responsible for reporting of the WStatR data to Eurostat. To accomplish this task it collects all the relevant data which is available from WasteServ and ERA and performs the necessary validation checks and statistical estimations to produce the required statistics.

NSO also makes use of other data sources in order to close certain data gaps. Annual data about discarded vehicles by registration category is obtained from the “Out-of-action” vehicles register of Transport Malta (competent Authority for transport affairs).  Data about scrapped vehicles is not linked to statistical units, so the estimated waste amounts are assigned to the Agricultural sector (NACE 1-3), the Services sector (NACE 45-99) and Households on the basis of the vehicle registration category.

Data about the production of minerals from the quarrying industry is another data source which is used to close the data gap about the mineral waste that is generated by this industry. This data originates from a survey which the NSO carried out on all quarry owners in 2021. From literature review about the subject it was established that hardstone quarries generate no mineral waste, while in softsone quarries about 30 per cent of all the rock cut ends up as waste. This mineral waste is left in the quarry site for use in the restoration process after the mineral resource is used up. The estimated amount of mineral waste generated and backfilled in softstone quarries is reported both in the waste generation and treatment datasets (see 12. Comment - Institutions involved and distribution of tasks).

All source data is collected annually.

1. Data management personnel at WasteServ send the annual data to the NSO by email (password protected), six months after the end of each year. Data includes both the Annual Environmental Reports (AERs) covering each waste facility managed by WasteServ as well as the weighbridge reports for the landfill, the MBT plants, the incinerator and the Gozo Waste Transfer facility.

2. Data is checked by the NSO for accuracy and completeness and verified in relation to that of previous years. All anomalies are flagged and requests for clarification or amendments are sent to WasteServ.

3. NSO compares the weighbridge reports to the official data and filters out those records that refer to weighbridge readings of waste outputs and the input of non-waste materials.  The outcome of this process is that the subtotals by LoW codes in the raw data and the official data are identical to each other.

4. Data about waste generation and treatment for all waste management facilities and brokers is included in the National waste inventory that is compiled by ERA. ERA provides this inventory to the NSO on an annual basis.

5. NSO checks the data for completeness, differences between generated and treated amounts and variations in comparison to previous years. All anomalies are flagged and requests for clarification or amendments are sent to ERA.   

6. The National waste inventory classifies the origin of waste into three broad categories: municipal, construction and demolition and commercial and industrial. NSO assigns the waste origin for each record in the Inventory on the basis of this information together with the LoW codes’ description.

7. The mineral waste generation from the quarrying industry is estimated from the results of NSO’s annual survey on minerals production from quarries.  

8. Data about the number and weight of scrapped vehicles is sourced from Transport Malta (Authority on transport matters) annually.

The NSO verifies all the data which is provided by WasteServ and ERA. Checks for implausible combinations, contradictory values, missing values and for time series consistency are carried out. Whenever anomalous values and data gaps are identified, clarifications are sought, and in certain cases the data is also amended by the data provider. When the draft version of the results is complete, the data is subjected to the validation rules which were proposed by Eurostat.

In total the three data sets are subjected to eleven validation rules. Each of these rules is applied to selected variables which are extracted from the three data sets. These tests validate the data in terms of comparison over time (2018 data vs 2020 data), relationship of waste generation to waste treatment figures, implausible combinations of waste categories to waste treatment types, and the relationship of waste incineration amounts to the capacity of incineration facilities. In general, the validation tests highlighted the following anomalies in the 2020 data:

Waste generation dataset

1. Decrease in Other mineral wastes generated by NACE 5-9: This was brought about by a decrease in quarrying activity related to softstone production.

2. Increase in Other mineral wastes generated by NACE 24-25: This occurred because of an increase in waste blasting material that has been recorded by private waste treatment facilities.

3. Decrease in Household and similar wastes generated by NACE 31-33: This decrease was recorded for the bulky waste that was delivered by enterprises in this NACE aggregate to WasteServ facilities.

4. Increase in Common sludges generated by NACE 36, 37, 39: This increase occurred since higher volumes of wastewater were treated by the urban wastewater treatment plants in Malta.

5. Decrease in the generation of Sludges and liquid wastes from waste treatment by NACE 38: The generation of digestate is in direct relation to the volume of organic waste that undergoes anaerobic digestion. Malta has two such facilities, one of which was undergoing maintenance works in 2020. This resulted in a reduction of organic waste that was directed to digestion, resulting in a decrease in the generation of digestate.

6. Decrease in the generation of Sorting residues by NACE 38: This decrease also occurred since one of the two MBT facilities that operate in Malta was closed for maintenance works in 2020.

7. Increase in the generation of hazardous Sorting residues by NACE 38: This increase has been recorded for hazardous rejects generated by private waste treatment facilities.

8. Decrease in the generation of Ferrous waste by NACE 41-43: This decrease was recorded by private waste treatment facilities.

9. Increase in the generation of Household and similar wastes by NACE 41-43: The increase was recorded for bulky waste that was delivered by enterprises in this NACE aggregate to WasteServ facilities. Bulky waste is generated in renovation or demolition activities, so this increase is consistent with the observed increase in construction and demolition activities during 2020.

10. Increase in the generation of Mineral waste from construction and demolition by NACE 41-43: An increase in construction and demolition activities, including extensive civil engineering projects, brought about higher mineral waste generation.

11. Increase in the generation of Soils by NACE 41-43: This increase refers to the generation of excavation waste from specific projects that was disposed at sea.

12. Decrease in the generation of Dredging spoils by NACE 41-43: This decrease corresponds to a decrease in dredging activities that was recorded in 2020.

13. Increase in the generation of Chemical wastes by NACE 45-99 excl. 46.77: This increase refers to input of waste fuels (including mixtures) that was recorded in private waste treatment facilities.

14. Decrease in the generation of Glass wastes by NACE 45-99 excl. 46.77: In 2020 there was a decrease in the non-household glass that was collected, probably due to restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

15. Increase in the generation of Paper and cardboard wastes by NACE 45-99 excl. 46.77: The records of private waste treatment facilities show that in 2020 there was in increase in the collection of this type of waste from non-household sources.

16. Decrease in the generation of Household and similar wastes by NACE 45-99 excl. 46.77: This decrease was probably brought about by restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, especially since tourist amounts were at a very low level in comparison to previous years.

17. Increase in the generation of Household and similar waste by NACE 46.77: This increase mainly occurred due to the re-classification of certain enterprises from NACE 38 to NACE 46.77 in 2020.

18. Increase in the generation of Glass wastes from households: This increase was brought about by increased public participation in the kerbside glass collection.

19. Increase in the generation of Animal and mixed food waste from households: This increase occurred since the kerbside organic waste collection was extended nationwide from November 2018 onwards.

20. Decrease in the generation of Household and similar wastes from households: This decrease was brought about by the introduction of the nationwide kerbside collection of organic waste that was introduced in November 2018. Previously this waste was disposed in mixed municipal waste, hence the decrease that was registered in 2020.

21. Increase in the generation of Mixed and undifferentiated materials from households: This increase refers to increased public participation in the kerbside collection of comingled recyclable materials.

22. Increase in the generation of Mineral waste from construction and demolition from households: This increase refers to a higher collection of mineral waste from Civic Amenity Sites which cater primarily for households.

Waste treatment dataset

1. Increase in the incineration of Animal and mixed food waste: This increase occurred since in 2020 there were higher amounts of slaughtered animals for meat production.

2. Increase in the recycling of Textile waste: In 2018 no textile wastes were recycled locally as opposed to 2020 when textile waste underwent treatment and reached end-of-waste status.

3. Increase in the recycling of Mineral waste from construction and demolition: Increase in the recycling of inert mineral waste brought about by the demand for construction products and limitations in the local extraction of new material.

4. Increase in the backfilling of Mineral waste from construction and demolition: This increase was brought about by increased construction and demolition activity, including extensive civil engineering projects.

5. Decrease in the backfilling of Other mineral waste: This was brought about by a decrease in quarrying activity related to softstone production.

6. Decrease in the landfilling of Sludges and liquid wastes from waste treatment: This was caused by a decrease in the generation of digestate that occurred since one of the two MBT plants was closed for maintenance.

7. Increase in the landfilling of Wood: In 2020 higher amounts of wood were sent to landfill, partly as a result of higher collected amounts from Civic Amenity Sites.

8. Increase in the landfilling of Vegetal waste: In 2020 higher amounts of vegetal wastes were disposed at the landfill.

9. Increase in the landfilling of Animal faeces, urine and manure: In 2020 a higher amount of animal manure was delivered for disposal to landfill.

10. Increase in the landfilling of Household and similar wastes: In 2020 this increase occurred due to an increase in the generation of bulky waste and since one of the two MBT plants was closed down for maintenance. In 2018 this plant treated mixed municipal waste mechanically in order to separate the organic fraction from the recyclable and residual fractions and so the amounts that were landfilled following this process were mainly Sorting residues. In 2020 the landfilling of Sorting residues decreased while Household and similar wastes increased.

11. Decrease in the landfilling of Sorting residues: In 2020 the landfilling of sorting residues decreased since their generation went down because of the closing down of one of the MBT plants for maintenance. Besides, there were other amounts that were kept in storage and exported for treatment.

12. Increase in the landfilling of Common sludges: This was caused by a higher generation of sludges from the treatment of urban wastewater.

13. Increase in the disposal at sea of Soils: The generation of excavation waste from certain projects necessitated disposal at sea in 2020. In 2018 there was no generation of excavation waste that required disposal at sea.

14. Decrease in the disposal at sea of Dredging spoils: In 2020 fewer dredging works were carried out in comparison to 2018 and so less waste was generated resulting in a decreased disposal at sea for this type of waste.

15. Landfilled non-hazardous Discarded equipment (137.58 tonnes): This amount was car seat foam and since it originated from vehicles it was coded as 16 01 22 (components not otherwise specified). In the LoW under sub-chapter 16 01 there is no code that refers to such waste. The only two codes are available for this kind of waste are 16 01 22 and 16 01 99. 16 01 99 was not chosen because the EWC-Stat equivalent of this code is Mixed and undifferentiated materials which is clearly not the case here because the car seat foam is a single type of material which is separated from the rest of the vehicle during dismantling or repairs. So the only code available was 16 01 22 which translates into Discarded equipment. 

Extractive waste generation – In Malta extractive waste is generated only by the quarrying industry - there is no mining industry. Extractive waste is mainly made up of waste rock which is generated during the production process. Waste from overburden may occur when horizontal quarry extensions are made. Currently no data about overburden is available and so this extractive waste type is generally excluded. Tailings do not occur, since ore mining does not take place in Malta.

Relatively small amounts of topsoil are removed when quarry extensions are made, however the topsoil is not considered as waste (soil is a scarce resource in Malta). In fact, its disposal is prohibited by law and its movement needs to be approved by the local authorities. So, it is either sold for use in landscaping or else can be kept on site for use in the quarry restoration process.

The generation of waste rock, which is also reported under backfilling in the Treatment table, is estimated on the basis of studies that indicate that about 30 per cent of the total volume of softstone quarried ends up as waste. This waste is used on site for backfilling purposes. In 2021 the NSO collected data about the production from the quarrying industry by means of a survey covering all quarry owners. The waste generation, which is reported as ‘Other mineral waste’ under NACE 5-9 was estimated on the basis of the 2020 figure for softstone production.

Generation of Household and similar wastes by Households and Services - With regards to mixed municipal (20 03 01) waste the NSO is aware of the fact that waste from certain commercial and institutional sources is collected together with waste originating from households. So, an estimate of the organic and recyclable waste which is generated by households is used to rectify the amount of mixed municipal waste, which is allocated to households, whilst the excess waste is allocated to the Services sector. The estimated household waste is determined from the results of the Household waste composition survey which was carried out in 2011/2012 by the NSO. Data analysis on weighbridge reports for 2012 and subsequent years has shown that the waste generation coefficient (0.68 kg per person per day for organic and recyclable and residual waste) that was established by this survey was still valid for subsequent years. 

Generation of waste from manufacturing - Various non-hazardous waste types which are generated from industrial areas are collected in a mixed state and so the available information does not allow for the identification of the NACE classes from where the waste was generated.  These waste amounts are subdivided among the manufacturing NACE aggregates on the basis of the number of employees within each NACE division that can generate that particular waste type.

Generation of waste from vehicles - Waste which originates during a vehicle’s lifetime which is classified under LoW codes 16 01 03 (end of life tyres), 13 02 00 (waste engine, gear and lubricating oils),  16 01 14*, 16 01 15 (antifreeze fluids) 16 06 01* and 20 01 33* (lead acid batteries) is subdivided among agriculture, services and households on the basis of data about licensed vehicles by type which is provided by Transport Malta. These derived records are then included with the data originating from all waste treatment facilities.

Sludges and dredging spoils - All data is collected in tonnes of wet weight. The WStatR requires data for Industrial effluent sludges (03.2), Sludges and liquid wastes from waste treatment (03.3), Common sludges (11) and Dredging spoils (12.7) to be reported in tonnes of Dry weight. For Common sludges the coefficient is derived from the data of the Water Services Corporation, which is the operator of the Urban wastewater treatment plants in Malta. For Sludges and liquid wastes from waste treatment the co-efficient has been provided by WasteServ Malta Ltd. since the bulk of this waste is digestate from anaerobic digestion plants. For the other waste categories, the NSO has used the co-efficients that have been provided by Eurostat. The following table shows the total generation by waste category in tonnes of wet weight for 2020.

Not applicable.

This quality report describes the sources and methods that are used by the NSO in order to generate the required statistics. The data processing methodology has also been written down in detail and is regularly updated. Much of the statistical processing is done by means of SPSS syntaxes which are applied from one year to the next and updated according to need. Concepts, classifications and formats as defined in European legislation are adhered to.

See Item 4.1 above.

These statistics are primarily compiled in fulfilment of the obligations of the WStatR. However, they also address user needs at the national level, especially the statistics on waste generation. These are mainly requested by government entities, researchers, university students and private firms. Waste treatment statistics that are reported in the WStatR have less relevance at the national level because they do not cover pre-treatment or waste that is exported for final treatment. However, the NSO is still able to provide data for such requests since it collects data on all waste treatment operations and waste exports.

No measures are in place to determine user satisfaction.

In all datasets there is no missing data.

The data completeness rate is 100 per cent.

Waste generation - All data is collected by LoW codes and all major waste treatment facilities, from where the data originates, are equipped with weighbridges. So, the data by waste category is considered as accurate. There is lesser accuracy with regards to the generation of waste by economic activities, especially the manufacturing activities. This mainly occurs since there are waste collectors that cover various economic activities. So, the allocation of these waste amounts to NACE aggregates needs to be estimated. The accuracy of Other mineral waste generation from quarrying is also lower since all these amounts are estimated upon production levels of this industry. 

Waste treatment - As for waste generation, the data by waste category is considered as accurate. The data by waste treatment aggregate is also considered as accurate since the data originates from permitted facilities that carry out treatment in accordance to the operations that are specified in their permit conditions. All treatment facilities are overseen by ERA which is the competent Authority in the area of waste management. 

Not applicable because no sample survey is carried out.

Nat applicable because no sample survey is carried out.

See sub-items from 6.3.1 to 6.3.4 below.

Waste generation - This data set has complete coverage for all sub-totals of the waste categories. Data originating from all legally operating waste brokers and waste treatment facilities has been used to determine the waste generation. Data providers (WasteServ and ERA) have reported no missing data from the data sets which they provided.

The landfill, the MBT plants, the incinerator and the Gozo Waste transfer station are the major facilities operated by WasteServ. Wasteserv provides weighbridge reports for these facilities which are broken down by LoW code, waste type, location of waste origin and client delivering the waste to the facility. This information facilitates the allocation of waste amounts to NACE aggregates. Coverage errors are mainly present in the allocation of certain generic waste types which include wood waste (20 01 38), biodegradable waste (20 02 01), and bulky waste (20 03 07) which are collected from mixed sources. The majority of records falling under these waste types do not include sufficient information to identify the exact source of the waste. So, amounts are either assigned to Services (NACE 45-99) or households depending on the locality from where the waste originates. If the locality is predominantly residential the waste is allocated to Households, if not the waste is allocated to the Services sector.

With regards to mixed municipal (20 03 01) waste the NSO is aware of the fact that waste from certain commercial and institutional sources is collected together with waste originating from households. So, an estimate of the organic and recyclable waste which is generated by households is used to rectify the amount of mixed municipal waste, which is allocated to households, whilst the excess waste is allocated to the Services sector. The estimated household waste is determined from the results of the Household waste composition survey which was carried out in 2011/2012 by the NSO. Data analysis on weighbridge reports for 2012 and subsequent years has shown that the waste generation coefficient (0.68 kg per person per day for organic and recyclable and residual waste) that was established by this survey was still valid for subsequent years. 

Various non-hazardous waste types which are generated from industrial areas are collected in a mixed state and so the available information does not allow for the identification of the NACE classes from where the waste was generated.  These waste amounts are subdivided among the manufacturing NACE aggregates on the basis of the number of employees within each NACE division that can generate that particular waste type.

Waste generation data which originates from certain minor sites that are managed by WasteServ together with all the data about waste input into private facilities is only available by LoW code so the allocation to NACE aggregates is done on the basis of the LoW codes’ description. Errors occur since there are certain LoW codes whose description is only material oriented and thus, they have no indication of source. In such cases these waste amounts were allocated to NACE 45-99 which corresponds to the Services sector. In 2020 this sector contributed to 85 per cent of the Gross Value Added in Malta.

Waste treatment - All final treatment facilities and sites where backfilling took place in 2020 have been included in the reporting.

Not applicable since no survey was carried out.

Measurement errors arise at the source of the data collection, which is at the treatment and brokerage facilities. Measurement errors may be present in the following data sources:

1. Actual data readings from weighbridges and metres (for waste oils) which are installed at waste treatment facilities
2. Notifications which are submitted by waste brokers (for waste exports)
3. Estimates which are made by the operators of facilities which do not have weighbridges.

Measurement errors arising out of data collection by means of weighbridges from waste management sites:

1. Incorrect allocation of waste types may arise due to erroneous declarations by truck drivers to weighbridge operators or due to the incorrect inputting of LoW codes by weighbridge operators. In order to minimise such errors ERA’s permit conditions state that the waste facility officers should be fully conversant with record-keeping. Officers are also requested to verify declarations by supervising trucks whilst they are being unloaded.

2. Weighbridge calibration may result in over-reporting or under-reporting of waste amounts. In certain instances, weighbridges which are installed in different facilities yield different measures for the same waste quantity. In order to prevent such errors, weighbridges are calibrated periodically by professional staff.

3. Under-reporting by private operators of waste management sites for tax evasion purposes. ERA cross-checks all records submitted by authorised facilities and waste brokers in order to identify incongruent declarations.

4. Illegal waste treatment in unauthorised sites. In order to reduce the incidence of illegal dumping, treatment in unauthorised sites and under-reporting of waste amounts ERA obliges waste carriers to register their vehicles. Registrations are to be renewed annually. Waste carriers are classified into various classes, according to the type of waste that can be carried. Upon registration waste carriers are issued with a tag that they should display on the wind screen of their vehicle. Waste carriers not in possession of this tag caught carrying waste may be subject to legal action. ERA issues a renewal to permit holders only upon application and with the condition that a report about the total quantities of waste that were disposed of is submitted. These figures are then used to verify the quantities reported by the operators of waste treatment facilities.

Errors arising out of notifications which are submitted by waste exporters:

1. ERA requests that all brokers should submit a written notification detailing the waste types and quantities which are to be exported. Errors might result if waste exporters under-declare waste quantities or report waste types with the wrong LoW code. In order to avert any instances of under-reporting ERA notifies all exporters that the shipment of waste without a valid permit may be deemed as illegal traffic and may be liable to criminal procedures. Cross checks with international trade data from NSO confirm that the coverage from ERA’s waste exports database is at an optimal level.

Errors arising out of the estimates which are submitted by those operators who measure waste amounts without the use of a weighbridge:

1. Estimates for inert mineral waste treatment are worked out by multiplying the number of trucks entering or leaving the facility by the average capacity (in tonnes) of a standard truck. Since there are different sizes of trucks the actual material processed in a given site may be higher or lower than the amounts which are estimated.

2. Other private pre-treatment facilities also provide data about the weight of waste treated by an estimation process. For example, those facilities treating WEEE count the number of WEEE items by type and then multiply them by the average weight for each WEEE type.

3. There can be under reporting of waste amounts due to tax evasion purposes, however ERA verifies the reported amounts with those submitted by waste carriers.

All the data which WasteServ and ERA collect is in kilogrammes, except for inert mineral waste which is in tonnes. NSO then converts the kilogrammes data into tonnes and compares the data with that of previous years to ensure that the correct units are applied. Data about the capacity of the non-hazardous landfills is extracted from the IPPC permits and is stated in cubic metres. This was converted to tonnes according to a conversion factor (1.15 tonnes/1 cubic metre) that was worked out by NSO on the basis of the landfill void space, the total tonnage of disposed waste and the expected lifetime of the landfill.

Even though waste treatment data is used for reporting of both Annex 1 and Annex 2, there is a discrepancy of 256,902 tonnes between waste generation and treatment figures. This has occurred since waste generation figures are based on the inputs of waste into treatment facilities together with waste which is exported without prior pre-treatment. The reporting of secondary waste in waste generation statistics can be considered to be intentional double counting which further adds to the discrepancy. Waste treatment figures are based on the records of final treatment facilities that operate on the geographical territory of Malta only. This results in a significant amount of waste that is excluded from reporting as it is exported for final treatment or is held in storage.

Not applicable since no missing data was detected.

Not applicable since no missing data was detected.

Not applicable since no missing data was detected.

Processing errors comprise:

1. Data providers can provide incorrect waste codes, quantities and treatment destinations. Checking of LoW codes and validation with data of previous years is done by the NSO.

2. WasteServ’s weighbridge data is cleaned by NSO in order to obtain a dataset that is compatible with the Annual Environmental Reports of the applicable facilities. Cleaning is done by filtering out those entries referring to inputs of non-waste materials, waste outputs and weighing only.

3. Coding errors may occur when NSO allocates the EWC-Stat codes for each waste record. In order to prevent such errors an SPSS syntax is run in order to create a new variable where LoW codes are converted into EWC-Stat codes according to the waste categories of the WStatR.  

4. Waste treatment data is coded with waste treatment aggregates which are allocated on the basis of the final treatment facility input or the output to the final treatment facility (for pre-treatment facilities). Location of treatment (Malta, abroad) codes are also applied to distinguish between final treatment that has taken place in Malta and that which has occurred abroad. These codes are allocated according to the information that is provided in the National waste inventory. R and D codes are transformed to WStatR treatment aggregates by referencing to an Excel file which contains code conversions. 

5. The assignment of waste sources to WasteServ’s weighbridge data is prone to error if the same rules upon which the waste origins are decided are not adhered to throughout the whole data set and across the years. In order to avoid such errors, SPSS syntaxes that assign NACE aggregates to all variable combinations have been designed and implemented.

6. Errors may arise when assigning NACE codes to waste sources. These errors arise because certain details in the weighbridge reports may include inaccuracies that hamper the identification of the appropriate enterprise name in the Business Register. In such cases searches are further refined by means of the identity number, the VAT registration number and the postal address.

Processing errors may also arise with the incorrect application of the established methodology from one reporting period to the next thus resulting in a lack of temporal coherence. So, a set of SPSS syntaxes that are capable of providing waste sources for all variable combinations were written down in 2019. These syntaxes are then updated annually to cater for new variable codes, updates in the NACE allocations for businesses, and updates in the list of waste carriers.

No imputation techniques have been used.

Not applicable.

No seasonal adjustment is applied.

At present NSO's data revision policy is still being drafted.

With regards to waste statistics, data revisions are carried out every two years together with the submission of data for the new reference year. If substantial revisions become available during the period between official data reportings, Eurostat is notified so that these revisions can be transmitted in the appropriate manner.

In January 2021 revisions for 2018 waste generation data have been carried out. The size of revisions was as follows:

Waste generation (Total) – 2018 reference year: 2.34%

In June 2022 revisions for 2018 waste treatment data have been carried out. The size of revisions was as follows:

Waste treatment (Total) – 2018 reference year: 0.03%

Stages in the data collection and processing by WasteServ include:

1. January 2020 to December 2020 - Data collection about waste types and quantities from waste treatment facilities and real time data transfer to data registers.

2. March 2021 to May 2021 – Data extraction and validation of AERs to be sent to ERA and NSO.

3. June 2021 to August 2021 – Data is sent to NSO and clarifications are provided in response to NSO’s queries.

Stages in the data collection and processing by ERA include:

1. February 2021 to June 2021 – Data collection about waste types and quantities processed by waste treatment facilities and waste brokers.

2. July 2021 to January 2022 - Verification of incoming data by ERA and inputting into registers.

3. February 2022 - Transmission of preliminary National waste inventory to NSO.

4. March 2022 - Provision of clarifications in response to NSO’s queries.

5. May 2022 – Transmission of finalised National waste inventory to NSO.  

Stages in the data processing by the NSO:

1. June 2021 to September 2021 - Send data requests to ERA and WasteServ.

2. September 2021 to May 2022 - Validate all data received.

3. May 2022 – Executing SPSS syntaxes on all waste generation records.

4. June 2022 – Executing SPSS syntaxes for derived records (excess Household and similar waste from HH, subdivision of NACE 10-33 waste among manufacturing aggregates); merging all records in SPSS data files for waste generation; executing syntaxes for calculating dry weights and for the waste generation and treatment filter variables; importing the finalised data in Excel and extracting results by means of pivot table reports.

5. June 2022 - Input results into Excel questionnaires and send through eDAMIS; write quality report and send through ESS-MH.

Data is reported to Eurostat 18 months after the end of each reference year. Data is reported bi-annually.

Not applicable.

Data has been delivered to Eurostat on time.

See Item 7.2 above.

The waste generation dataset covers all the generation of waste taking place on the geographical territory of MALTA. The waste treatment dataset covers all the final treatment of waste taking place on the geographical territory of MALTA.

Not applicable.

Changes compared with previous years – For the 2018 reference year and before ERA used to provide the NSO with aggregated data for the waste input and output of private waste management facilities. To produce this dataset ERA had to filter out all records of waste that originated or were transferred to WasteServ facilities. This procedure was causing undue burden upon ERA so it was agreed that ERA should provide the NSO with the National waste inventory comprising of waste generation and treatment records aggregated for all operating waste management facilities in Malta.

This data is well suited for the waste treatment requirements of the WStatR because treatment data is provided in R and D codes and a distinction between waste treatment in Malta and abroad is made. However, for waste generation NSO still needs a dataset which is specific to private waste management facilities and brokers in order to make the appropriate allocations to NACE aggregates. It was agreed with ERA that these amounts shall be determined by subtracting the aggregated WasteServ data (free of double counting) by LoW code from the total waste generation by LoW code. The remaining amounts should then be those that were managed by the private waste management facilities and brokers. NSO is carrying out these computations itself, for the time being in an Excel file by means of formulas.

Foreseen changes – The private waste management facilities and brokers computation process is not automated and relies to a high degree on manual interventions which may lead to errors. Based on the experience of the last two years the process shall be standardised and automated by means of SPSS syntaxes.

The NSO shall seek to utilise the waste management data that it has, together with other data from its data providers (if needed) to report voluntary data to Eurostat about the reconciliation of waste generation and treatment data.

For all three datasets of the WStatR data is directly comparable for the following reference years: 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020.

Environment statistics: On a national level, waste statistics are published by the NSO in two annual news releases: one on Solid waste management in Malta and the other on Municipal waste. The Solid waste management news release includes data on waste generation and treatment which methodologically is comparable to data that is provided to Eurostat. Differences in the figures occur since the News release presents data in Wet weight and since it is published in February when the data from ERA is still provisional.    

WStatR data is also coherent with the Municipal waste data since the same data sources and classifications are used for all reporting obligations. WStatR data is also used by Eurostat to calculate the Circular Material Use rate for the EU and per country. 

Socio-economic statistics: There is no coherence between WStatR data and socio-economic statistics due to different data sources and methodological approaches.

Waste generation and treatment statistics are only produced on an annual basis.

There is no coherence between WStatR statistics and National Accounts because of different methodological approaches.

The data are internally coherent since the totals are equal to the sum of the breakdowns.

Data on waste generation show higher amounts than waste treatment for various reasons. This is because waste generation comprises both the primary waste generation and the secondary waste generation (waste produced by treatment activities) whilst the waste treatment dataset only covers final treatment. In the case of Malta the final treatment includes the waste which is landfilled, disposed at sea, incinerated and backfilled in Malta. Waste recycling is mainly made up of Mineral waste from construction and demolition because the recycling of other waste categories takes place in overseas facilities. Other minor reasons that account for the differences between waste generation and treatment include time lags between waste generation and treatment and moisture losses for various types of waste.

The NSO publishes annually, every February, statistics about waste generation and treatment. Waste generation statistics are broken down by waste category whilst waste treatment statistics are broken down by treatment type. Individual tables for major facilities, treatment types and separate waste collection are also published.

Currently the NSO does not publish any publication on Environment statistics.

Currently waste statistics do not feature on the NSO's online database. However, waste statistics are published in the Selected indicators section of the NSO website. Two indicators are published: waste generation by broad EWC-Stat categories and waste treatment by waste treatment aggregates and location of treatment. Data is reported in tonnes of wet weight.

Not applicable.

Microdata that are used in waste statistics comprise the weighbridge reports which WasteServ provides to NSO. NSO does not disseminate this data and if any request for it is received it is directed to WasteServ.

Not applicable.

Waste statistics are produced according to the provisions of the Manual on waste statistics that was published by Eurostat in 2013. Statistical processing for waste statistics has also been documented and is available for internal purposes.

Each data reporting for the WStatR is accompanied with a quality report in ESQRS format. Please refer to the points above and below for further information.

All sections of this quality report have been filled in wherever applicable.

This report has been compiled by the Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries statistics Unit of the National Statistics Office of Malta. It shall be made available to the ERA, together with the data. If any concerns are raised a revised report shall be transmitted to Eurostat.

The generation of results for the WStatR has placed no direct burden on households, private enterprises, waste brokers and treatment facilities’ operators in Malta. The data which is used by the NSO to compile these statistics is all derived from administrative sources which have been set up as a requirement of other regulations and directives.

Statistics produced by the NSO are subject to the provisions of the Policy on Confidentiality of Personal and Commercial data, which can be provided upon request from the NSO. The main dissemination channel for Malta’s official statistics is the NSO website. Since 2004 a free dissemination policy has been implemented whereby all official statistics are available free of charge from the NSO website.

All data which is reported for the WStatR is not directly traceable to any particular private enterprise, and so confidentiality requirements do not apply. The waste treatment data sets include data which can be directly linked to WasteServ, however these figures are not confidential.

The WStatR data is not sourced directly form the waste generators or treatment facilities with the exception of WasteServ facilities. This company finds no objection for its data to be freely disseminated as long as it is not directly traceable to companies that are included in the Weighbridge reports. With regards to the derived variables, employment data that is regularly published is used as the disaggregation factor and so these variables are also free from confidentiality requirements. ERA has also been requested to provide the list of values which are considered as confidential, however, it declared that all values are free from confidentiality requirements. 

All the data which has been used for compiling the 2020 data sets has been collected by ERA, which is the competent Authority for the waste management sector. The NSO has also requested data directly from WasteServ, which is the largest waste management operator.

Environment and Resources Authority – The Waste Regulations published by Subsidiary Legislation 549.63, state that any facility carrying out any waste management operations should be permitted by ERA. Such permits are intended to ensure that environmental standards are maintained during the operations of these facilities. Facilities are also required to report their annual input and output of waste according to the templates of the Annual Environmental Report (AER). The disposal of inert waste generated by the construction industry in depleted quarries is regulated under Subsidiary Legislation 549.50 and Subsidiary Legislation 549.63. Data for these facilities is reported to ERA according to a specific template.

All permitted facilities should provide the required data to ERA annually. ERA also collects data about hazardous waste movements within Maltese territory, and data about waste exports, both hazardous and non-hazardous, from waste brokers. Waste brokers include those individuals or organizations which undertake arrangements for the collection, recovery, recycling or disposal of waste on behalf of others including brokers who do not necessarily take physical possession of the waste. Waste brokers that carry out waste brokerage activities within Malta are required to be registered with ERA to keep carrying out their activities. This registration process is carried out in compliance with the Waste Management (Activity Registration) Regulations, 2007 (SL 549.45). ​  

A Memorandum of Understanding for regulating data flows between ERA and NSO has been signed in May 2022.   

WasteServ Malta Ltd. - This is a government owned agency permitted by ERA to operate integrated systems of waste management in accordance with the Laws of Malta. In fulfilment of its permit requirements WasteServ collects data about waste type, quantity, waste origin and client delivering the waste to waste management sites falling under its responsibility. In the coming months the NSO and WastServ should sign an MoU to govern the transfer of data from WasteServ to NSO.

National Statistics Office – The National Statistics Office (NSO) is the executive arm of the Malta Statistics Authority. It is responsible for the collection, compilation, analysis and publication of a wide range of statistical information and related matters. Information provided to the NSO is treated as confidential. This information is used solely in the compilation of statistical reports. No information on individual returns can be given to any external public or private entity. The NSO and its activities are governed by the Malta Statistics Authority Act, 2000.