The government will finance the first four months of a new scheme which will see packaging waste being collected on a door-to-door basis, said Environment Minister George Pullicino yesterday.

Mr Pullicino was speaking during a seminar on the environment organised by Bank of Valletta and held at the San Gorg Corinthia.

He said that from the beginning of negotiations with the European Union, Malta maintained that the recycling of glass bottles for packaging of non-alcoholic drinks was the best possible environmental solution to the pollution problem.

However, he said, the European Commission ruled that there would be more damage to the free market when weighed up against the positives for the environment. He said that the government negotiated a three-year derogation on plastic bottles, which ran out last December. Mr Pullicino said that Maltese, like other consumers around the world, preferred soft drinks in plastic bottles.

The Environment Minister said that to meet this new challenge, the government invested in all the necessary waste measures, including bring-in sites, civic amenity sites and a Material Recovery Facility at the Sant’Antnin waste treatment plant. He said this showed that despite all the attempted spokes in the wheel along the way, the government was prudent and thanks to the initial outlay, Malta was not facing the same problems currently being faced in Naples and the Campagna region of Italy.

The MRF plant at Sant’Antnin will be up and running in the coming days and allowed the government to come up with a door-to-door collection system to complement the bring in and civic amenity sites.

Mr Pullicino said that the scheme was created in consultation with the Association for Local Councils and constituted bodies in order to collect packaging waste from people’s doorsteps.

The new system will involve an extra rubbish collection trip in each locality every Tuesday specifically for packaging waste. The collection will take place at a different time to when normal household waste is collected.

Each household will be given a quota of purposely made bags while additional ones are available for a fee. The bring-in and civic amenity sites will remain in operation. The bags are semi-transparent and the material will then be taken to the MRF where waste will be separated semi-automatically. The MRF was set up thanks to funds from the European Union.

After the four months which will be paid for by the government, local councils are encouraged to enter into discussions with private companies that are under obligation to contribute towards national recycling goals.

Mr Pullicino said that in the coming weeks, an education campaign will be embarked on to distribute information to the public.

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority, he said, had recently engaged the services of six enforcement officers and a lawyer to ensure a level playing field in the packaging waste market.

The minister said that Malta had made great strides forward in terms of the environment and waste management over the past five years and that a cultural revolution had been brought about as a result.

“When one looks at how much we have achieved in such a short time, few doubts remain that if we work together, we can rise to any challenge,” the minister said.