David Lindsay
With a recovery scheme for Malta’s new plastic soft drink bottles still to be fully hammered out despite the fact that thousands of such bottles are already on the market, the government has taken a temporary measure aimed at ensuring they do not make their way into the environment.
A fully fledged system for the separation at source of packaging waste and the door-to-door collection of such waste, meanwhile, is expected to become operational by the beginning of March, with negotiations between the government and the private sector nearly complete.
Speaking with The Malta Independent on Sunday yesterday, Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino explained, “As a temporary solution until a working system as being agreed with the private sector becomes fully effective, we are introducing an additional receptacle at each bring-in site that will be dedicated solely to plastic bottles.”
Such additional receptacles have already been placed in certain localities, while others are to follow suit in the coming weeks.
As Malta’s soft drink bottlers began phasing out glass bottles in favour of plastic bottles at the beginning of the year, a working scheme for their collection was still missing by the EU’s 1 January deadline for the implementation of the Waste Packaging Directive.
Mr Pullicino confirmed that discussions with the Local Councils Association as well as the Malta Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises, the Federation of Industry, the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association are at a “very advanced stage”.
The negotiations, he added, are expected to be wrapped up by the month’s end.
The new scheme is to provide for the collection of all packaging waste, including plastic soft drink bottles, will see such recyclable waste being separated at source, by households, into specially designated bags and being collected from doorsteps on designated days.
The new system will be able to be launched at the end of the month provided the first phase of the Sant’Antnin waste treatment plant, dedicated to dealing with such recyclable waste, becomes active as planned by 28 January.
A fully working door-to-door collection system, he adds, should be put in place, “fingers crossed”, by the end of February or the beginning of March.
But despite hopes the door-to-door collection scheme would bring the desired waste management results, Mr Pullicino stills rues the phasing out of glass soft-drink bottles, which provided for a tried and tested, environmentally-friendly collection system.
He commented yesterday, “During EU negotiations we had insisted it made no sense to stop the glass bottle deposit and return system. But unfortunately in this case the EU chose to put competition considerations before those of the environment.”
But in the meantime, consumers and environmentalists alike are concerned that large amounts of plastic bottles are now making their way to consumers before a proper collection system is in place – raising the threat of increase levels of litter and other inappropriate means of disposing of such plastic bottles.
The new system is in the immediate pipeline, with Mr Pullicino confirming negotiations on the final workings of the scheme are nearly complete and that the final elements of the scheme are at the moment being “dovetailed”. Mr Pullicino expects to be in a position to give the details on the exact working of the scheme as to how the separation and door-to-door collections will be run within a month’s time.
While acknowledging negotiations had been problematic in their early stages in convincing certain bodies to come on board, yesterday he thanked the Local Councils Association and the constituted bodies involved for their input and cooperation.
“The system,” he added, “will represent the peak of facilitation and the fruition of the hard work we have put into waste management, considering where we started from and where we have reached today.”
In the meantime, glass soft drink bottles are still being sold, given the EU requirement that Malta opens its market to competition by allowing the sale of soft drinks in plastic bottles. As such, glass bottles, a long standing feature of Malta’s soft drinks industry, are expected to be fully phased out only when consumer demand for them drops below levels allowing them to be financially feasible for bottlers.
Mr Pullicino yesterday urged people to first crush their plastic soft drink bottles before disposing of them at bring-in sites so that more used bottles would fit into the receptacles provided. Plastic soft drink bottles, he added, can also be deposited at civic amenity sites.