With EU directives on waste separation and recycling needing to be implemented from 1 January, the GRTU, Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises is asking for an immediate Lm4.17 supplement on every trip done by every waste truck in each district, to make up for the rise in the price of diesel over the past five years.

Each trip, GRTU director general Vince Farrugia told waste carriers at a meeting, was today costing Lm10.39 compared to the Lm6.22 at the beginning of 2003. This was too large an increase for the operators to carry and if the problem is not solved without delay, the waste collection system will collapse.

The government has legislated to prepare for the coming into force of the EU directives and the private sector is organising itself to implement waste collection operations. The GRTU has drawn up two schemes, one for the collection of electronic and electrical waste, such as computers, television sets, fridges, washing machines and cookers, the other for packaging waste such as carton boxes, plastic bottles and beer and mineral drinks containers. The latter was planned together with the FOI, the Chamber of Commerce and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association.

The GRTU has campaigned against schemes of deposits on containers and made counter proposals under which traders would themselves operate waste separation and collection door to door. Its schemes will require private contractors to invest in modern machinery and trained staff.

Mr Farrugia said the waste collection scheme in operation at present could not be developed to meet EU requirements which will have to be observed from next year. From information the GRTU had collected after talks with the waste collection contractors, it was clear that one third of the operators were thinking of giving up their operation in the coming three months and half of the remainder were decided that if the government did not resolve their diesel problem they would give up within six months.

Mr Farrugia said the government should itself make good for the Lm4.17 claim. The government was also expected to ensure that all the money it passed to local councils for waste collection was in fact paid to the contractors. As it was, local councils were retaining for themselves up to 15 per cent of that money.

“The GRTU’s plans are based on a waste collection system using modern trucks suitable for the collection of separated waste and operated by trained, and properly paid staff who would ensure a quality service. This is what Malta deserves and this is the aim the GRTU wants to achieve,” Mr Farrugia said.

The GRTU said in a statement that the 83 operators who attended the meeting agreed to follow any directives it issued, and that the government had all the facts, and had the political will to introduce a serious waste collection service.