Over the Easter period, the amount of waste generated will definitely increase due to Easter cards, Easter eggs, and additional waste from entertaining. Easter egg packaging represents a particular challenge, because of the different elements involved – cardboard, foil and cellophane, to name a few. An average 200g chocolate egg comes with 54g of card and 2g of foil!

WasteServ Malta would like to encourage the general public to continue to reduce and reuse packaging thereby ensuring that less waste is sent directly to the engineered landfills. So when grocery shopping do choose products with less packaging, or if entertaining, choose loose fruit and vegetables and only buy what you need, to help reduce waste. Malta is fortunate enough to still enjoy the services of the vans that sell their greens in every town and village square and by shopping there one also ensure that this quaint service does not die out!

Insist on no plastic when buying produce at the supermarket. Do break up and separate Easter egg packaging, and recycle the card in the correct bring-in sites. For the more creative, why not produce homemade eggs. Here is how to create a simple but stunning hand painted egg: Make a hole at the top and bottom of a large, free range egg, carefully blow out the contents, allow the eggshell to dry and gently decorate it with brightly coloured paints or felt-tips. Alternatively, you can hard boil the eggs. To save time painting them, add some food colouring to the water. Add the extra decorations when they have cooled down.

WasteServ takes this opportunity to wish the public a very happy Easter while thanking all those who use the bring-in sites and civic amenity sites to recycle their waste.