Christmas is fast approaching – a time for parties, fun and the exchanging of gifts between families and friends: all the ingredients required to generate tonnes of packaging waste.

It is estimated that Malta generates over 70,000 tonnes of such waste every year. In simpler terms, the amount of packaging waste generated by each household annually is equivalent to the weight of a person.

Packaging material is not limited to the boxes that protect the goods we buy from getting damaged, but also includes the wrappers and ribbons used to decorate gifts. The glass bottles containing wines and spirits, together with aluminium beer cans, are other forms of packaging.

One also needs to take into consideration the large amount of packaging used to preserve the food that we consume during staff parties, Christmas lunches and dinners. Such packaging material may have different forms and be made from different materials, but the outcome is the same: it will all end up in the waste bin or skips, together with all the other packaging waste.

The Christmas season is not the only culprit, but when one takes into consideration the abundance of food and drinks consumed during the festive period, it certainly accounts for a large proportion of the packaging waste disposed of in our environment.

By its very nature, packaging is bulky. It is perceived as being wasteful and voluminous and there appears to be a disproportionate amount of packaging compared to the goods we buy.

All companies are obliged to recover their packaging waste under the EU Packaging Directive. These obligations are now also reflected in Maltese law. The best way for importers and manufacturers to meet these requirements is by joining a compliance scheme, similar to the one being run by GreenPak.

GreenPak brings to Malta the Green Dot system, a tried and tested compliance scheme for the recovery of packaging waste. Adopted worldwide in 27 countries and with over 19 million tonnes of packaging waste recovered across Europe during 2005, the Green Dot system has delivered consistently for more than a decade.

Participation in the Green Dot scheme is demonstrated by the Green Dot symbol carried on products. The Green Dot symbol is the most widely used trademark in the world and is an international symbol awarded to companies that pay for the recovery of the packaging waste generated through product trading. Companies participating in the GreenPak compliance scheme benefit from having their obligations taken care of by the recovery system operated by GreenPak. This also gives the company the right to display the Green Dot symbol on the packaging sold to consumers.

GreenPak is adopting a comprehensive and integrated packaging waste recycling and recovery scheme in Malta that addresses various consumer needs. Taking into consideration the diverse lifestyles, family size, marital status, social backgrounds and other social factors, GreenPak is using distinct mechanisms for the collection of discarded packaging that serve the public well.

GreenPak will shortly be launching another innovative service – the Door-2-Door bag collection scheme. Through this system, GreenPak intends to distribute “colour-coded” bags for packaging disposal to every household. On specific days, separate collection of waste packaging will be provided and since packaging does not decay, weekly or fortnightly collections will be possible. Talks are already underway with various local councils, with the first of such systems scheduled to come into effect in early 2007.

For more information about GreenPak and the Green Dot scheme log on to www.greenpak.co.mt