While Prime Minister Joseph Muscat proposed a system whereby people would be able to hand in plastic and receive a refund during his '100 days of the legislature' speech last September, the St Paul's Bay local council was stopped from instigating a similar-sounding scheme back in 2015 by the Department for Local Government.

During his speech last September, the Prime Minister spoke about the impact that plastic has on sea life and the environment in general. He proposed a system whereby people would instead be able to hand in plastic and receive a refund, saying: "No one is going to throw away money, so they won't throw away plastic any more either."

The Malta Independent on Sunday recently published an article revealing that Malcolm Scerri - Keith Schembri's business partner through Acumen Projects Ltd, a company that he solely owns and directs and which is the Malta representative of Tomra, a Norwegian multinational recycling solutions corporation - is potentially eyeing a lucrative government bottle deposit contract.

In a statement, the Ministry for the Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change has categorically denied any allegations made in the article. It said that the article aimed to "prejudice a positive innovative environmental initiative, with the publication of uncorroborated statements such as 'once the project and tender get off the ground, they will be tailor-made for Acumen to snap up.'

"The Government will be launching an open public consultation process in the coming weeks whereby all stakeholders will have the opportunity to study the framework being proposed," the Ministry said.

Tomra, contacted by this newsroom, said that they are looking forward to a public consultation to obtain further details as to how the scheme in Malta will operate, "giving us the opportunity to feed in our experiences from around the world." They said that, while they have been following the process in Malta closely over the past weeks and months, "we were not actively involved at a government level. Also, we have not been approached by any government representatives seeking consultancy services in the field of reverse vending or sorting, which is quite common during the system design phase, as seen in other countries."

Scerri acquired Acumen back in May 2014, well before the announcement that the government was looking into a plastic bottle return system.

In 2015, the St Paul's Bay local council was already working on a similar sounding project that was halted by the Department for Local Government.

We would have reached a much higher level of plastic recycling by now - Graziella Galea

Speaking to The Malta Independent on Sunday, former St Paul's Bay Mayor Graziella Galea was asked to comment on the Prime Minister's announcement last September, given that the council's project had been stopped.

"It is ironic that the Prime Minister made an announcement in 2017 about an initiative regarding the plastic bottles scheme, when we had started this initiative two years before and had been stopped by the same government that is now 'launching' this initiative", she said. "One wonders about the real reasons why the St Paul's Bay local council was stopped, when one could only have benefitted from this scheme. I have no doubt that, had the initiative by St Paul's Bay local council been allowed to grow, and an awareness campaign had been launched then, we would by now have reached a much higher level of plastic recycling than what we have so far."

Galea explained that St Paul's Bay local council had taken this initiative in order to increase the amount of recycled material in the locality, "in the knowledge that one of the government's policies is to increase the amount of recycled material nationwide. Hence, at the time, the decision by the central government on the proactive and innovative initiative by St Paul's Bay local council was a surprise to me.

"On the one hand we had the central government encouraging the general public to recycle and on the other, the same government was blocking the local council from an initiative that, for the first time, gave residents a suitable incentive to recycle. I would have expected that not only would the government not stop us from this initiative, but that rather it would give credit to the local council for this unique idea and encourage other local councils to follow suit. During the weeks in which this machine was being used it was a great success, with residents of other localities also using it. Instead of plastic bottles being disposed of, they were being recycled. Had the initiative been allowed to continue operating without any obstruction, the number of recycling machines would have increased as well as the amount of recycled material. It's a pity the initiative by St Paul's Bay local council was stopped."

Email exchange between Council and Department for Local Government

This newsroom also saw emails between the local council and the Department for Local Government, sent between October 2015 and January 2016.

In the emails, the Acting Executive Secretary of the local council at the time was contacted by the Director of the Department for Local Government. The director said he was informed that the local council was in consultation, or had concluded, some form of agreement regarding the collection of recycling waste such as plastic, glass or aluminium, and asked for copies of any contract and any other documents regarding this matter to be sent to them.

Later on the same day, another email was sent by the Department. "I refer to the previous email as well as the phone call regarding this subject. At this stage the process should not continue until the necessary approvals are brought from the ministries concerned. If you already have approval, I ask you to send a copy of this documentation."

The Executive Secretary had responded, saying that, after discussing the matter with the mayor at the time: "We cannot understand with what reasoning and on what basis someone issued this instruction." He wrote that St Paul's Bay local council was taking this initiative on the government's direction, in other words, to increase the amount of recyclable waste so that the country would finally conform with EU directives regulating waste separation.

He expressed surprise that the government was preventing St Paul's Bay local council from encouraging and incentivising both residents and the public to separate waste through this project. "We were more expecting credit for this initiative and that instead of it being stopped, someone would approach us to see if it could extend this initiative to other localities."

He said that all the council was doing was urging the public to throw a plastic bottle into a machine specifically provided for it, instead of throwing in into mixed waste receptacles. He said that the machine separated the liquid from the plastic, if the bottle contained any liquid, and that the machine squashed the bottle and then threw it into a container in the same machine. For every bottle so disposed of, he said, a voucher would be issued that could be used in a number of shops with which that arrangements had been made. "This is the first time in this country that the public is given something back in return for helping the country reduce mixed waste."

He said that the company responsible was registered with MEPA. "This company has the same right to carry out this work as the council has to collect waste through methods in conformity with the law, and through companies registered to do this."

In response, the Director of the Department for Local Government said that the permit is one for "waste brokers," and not a "Waste Compliance Scheme." He said that only two permits for Waste Compliance Schemes had been issued - one to Green MT and the other to Green Pak - adding that in 2010 a memo had been sent to local councils asking them to make agreements with one of these two companies. Until another direction was issued, an agreement should not be concluded.

Communications between the Department and the council continued, and the local council's executive secretary noted that no contract had been signed. He also said that, following legal advice, he believes that the council's initiative is legitimate and that he would be failing in his legal responsibility to the council if he stopped the council from continuing.

"Up to now the Department has not given any reference to a law which the council broke in this regard."

He stressed that the council had not signed any contract with the company in question - and that the only formal act by the council was to issue a no objection to a request by the company for MEPA,

The Department's director replied with a number of points, arguing that St Paul's Bay local council were in breach of the Local Council's Act, which reads: "a local council may enter into public private partnerships both with the private sector or with non- governmental organisations, following approval by the Department for Local Government, which shall grant such approval only if it is satisfied that such partnership would benefit the residents of the locality, and after having obtained the approval of the Minister responsible for Finance and of the Minister responsible for Local Government."

He also made a number of other points, including that the council decided to enter into a partnership with a private company on a project without approval as stated above, without the company having the necessary permit from MEPA, without acting according to the Public Contract Regulations, etc.

Council was not paying for machine

"I understand that the council's aim is genuine, but one must see that the passage to reach that aim is a legal one." He mentioned that waste management in Malta is regulated through national laws and EU directives and that all initiatives must conform with those regulations. "

The Executive Secretary eventually said that, despite personal feelings, he will follow the instructions given by the director and he told the council that he would not sign any contract or approve any work or related expenses. He said that the council's legal advice is that they are not breaking any laws and that the council still cannot understand why they had been stopped from taking this initiative. The only thing the council had, he said, was one machine in the council's offices.

Former Mayor Graziella Galea, talking to this newsroom, said that it was a foreign resident living in St Paul's Bay who had approached the council and wanted to launch the project in the area as a pilot project. She said that the Council wanted to expand the initiative by having the machines in more public central locations.

The former mayor also explained that the council never paid anything regarding the machine in the council building and that the private individual was maintaining it, etc. She said that, eventually, an agreement with Green MT had been signed regarding recycling and included this service in it, but it was too late and the instigator had lost interest.