I refer to the letter The lack of Bring-in-Sites in Zurrieq, (TMID 14 April). The reader making these observations is some how mistaken.

In 2004, I presented to the Government and WasteServ a report on the recovery of waste from source, which was based on a study carried out by me back in 2003.

It was noted that the government was very much interested to explore the implementation of the strategy as presented on a national scale. The number of bring-in sites the government is implementing, matches the amount mentioned in my report, and this is very positive.

The strategy implemented in Zurrieq was one of five sites with five containers each (organic included) which the council was discussing to implement. At one point there was certain pressure to decide otherwise and the number of containers on the site was reduced to four in February this year, contrary to my original planned strategy.

To maintain and quote for the recovery of waste with sites of four containers each was found the be impossible to quote, due to an anomaly that exist in favor of WasteServ, this was and is still being dealt with between the government and the association of the local councils, until such anomaly is resolved, the situation would remain as it is. On the other hand if any council maintaining the Bring-in sites strategy based on 5 containers (organic waste recovery included) then my strategy and others alike would be well competitive.

Kindly note that the containers and strategy which was used in the site at Zurrieq was like no other any were else (be it Malta or abroad) and apart from the site being washed after each recovery, the containers are changed with clean ones on every recovery, contrary to the conventional containers.

In the process of the pilot project, the council and us (contractor and operator included) were discussing two other methods to assist in the recovery of waste in Zurrieq, which this would have meant a better and cleaner management of waste recovery, utilizing my system and strategy, this is why the experiment took longer then the three months we envisaged to take. This is why a pilot project is carried out, just to identify the pros and cons, and this is what exactly happened in the Zurrieq case.

The matters related to the decision taken by the council, is completely different from that being stated on the media, and yes I am considering (as I was asked) to propose other method of implementing a strategy for the council to consider at a later stage, utilizing my system.

Albert Xuereb

SmartBin Containments