The present tax will be charged at flat rates on containers ranging from plastic and glass bottles, cans for beer, wine and non-alcoholic drink bottles, to white goods and electronic products including telephones and batteries.

An eco-tax is meant to encourage the public to opt for environmentally friendly products and consume less, and to push manufacturers to initiate measures to use less material and collect used material for reuse and/or recycling. The eco-tax is also a means of putting the polluter pays principle in practice

NTM said that while it fully supports eco-taxes when they are applied discriminately to ensure that whoever uses harmful products excessively or instead of other more eco-friendly substitutes pays for their final disposal, it feels that a nationwide campaign should be launched to educate the public on the harm such products cause and show the alternatives that can be used. On the other hand, it noted that the government had introduced incentives for businesses that organise bring-in facilities and promote eco-friendly products.

“It is inconceivable that differential tariffs for environmentally friendly, environmentally less friendly and environmentally harmful products are not evident all throughout the proposals,” Nature Trust said.

The NGO also criticised the fact that no education campaign is planned to explain the environmental reasons behind the eco-tax and how citizens can use it as a tool to improve their lifestyle in environmental terms. “One such example is that plastics are very harmful to human health when they end up in our landfills and thus whoever uses them should pay the eco-tax. On the other hand, PET plastic, which is environmentally less harmful, as it is potentially recyclable, should be taxed at a lower rate than PVC plastic, which cannot be recycled,” Nature Trust explained.

Nature Trust welcomed the recent government decision to consult environmental NGOs on the eco-tax in line with the Aarhus Convention and according to the principles of participatory democracy.

The NGO said that eventually the revenue collected should go into a transparently managed environmental fund. This should be used for environmental projects like introducing the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle principle into everyday life or improving our degraded environment by funding a Green Warden system.

Only in this way would such tax collection be transparent, and the public would be able to see the results of the polluter pays principle in action.

For more information contact Nature Trust (Malta), P.O. Box 9, Valletta CMR 01, email [email protected] or phone/fax 2131-3150.