The real test, undoubtedly, will come this week, when the new system gets its first full blown test, with waste collectors collecting domestic and municipal waste from all over the island and depositing it in the special facility opened at Maghtab as a temporary measure.

Over the past two days problems have cropped up between the waste collectors and the Wasteserv authorities. Wasteserv insists that the new facility must take only domestic waste and nothing else, but waste collectors argue in return that their contracts with local councils speak of collecting domestic and commercial waste.

This dispute means, for instance, that if a waste collector picks up some pieces of wood left in a skip, his truck can be refused access to the waste collection area.

One such case took place on Friday and caused deep reactions among the waste cooperatives.

This was sorted out on Saturday through a process whereby the waste is now being dumped some distance from the proper place where it should be deposited and then broken up by means of a bulldozer before being pushed to the proper place.

This, however, is somewhat time consuming, as is the insistence by Wasteserv that each waste vehicle must be thoroughly searched before being allowed to dump. Such a search can take some 15 minutes, which the cooperatives think will impact heavily on their profitability.

They are already facing steep increases in diesel prices which are eating into their margins and they can ill afford to absorb further losses.

On the other hand, it seems inevitable that there must be a drastic change in the way waste is collected and sorted.

On their part, however, the cooperatives insist that their contracts with the councils need to be changed to reflect the new measures which are being taken on.

It would seem, said sources in the field, that the best solution would be to implement separation at source rather than impose sorting out of waste on the waste collection cooperatives as this would be far more expensive on all involved, time and money-wise.

It was not possible to contact Wasteserv for their reaction to the above over the weekend.