Figures released to The Malta Independent by WasteServ – and which have been published over the past week – show a steady rise in the amount of recyclable waste that is being collected from households every Tuesday. At the same time, more and more people are using bring-in sites and civic amenity sites.
The Recycling on Tuesday scheme took longer than expected to start, but the results of the first three months are quite encouraging. They show that the change in mentality that has for long been advocated in the way we dispose of our waste is finally taking place. Let’s hope it remains that way.
The drive was another step, following the introduction of a number of bring-in sites and civic amenity sites, to push people into disposing of their waste properly. Thankfully, the number of occasions when you see mattresses, fridges and other material dumped in street corners and other public places has been considerably cut down.
This newspaper reported that 9.3 million kilogrammes of waste have been collected since bring-in sites were established in 2005. In the first seven months of this year, the amount of waste collected was equivalent to the total of waste collected all through 2007, which effectively means that bring-in site usage will nearly double by the end of the year if the current trend continues.
Added to this, nearly 15,000 tonnes of material has been deposited in Civic Amenity Sites since the first such site was opened in Maghtab in 2006.
The Recycle on Tuesday initiative is also bearing its fruit. In the first week of the scheme last May, only 34,000 kilogrammes of waste for recycling was collected.
The amount had more than doubled by the second week, passed the 100,000 kilogramme mark in the third week and it has steadily risen since then to reach 151,510 kilogrammes in mid July (the last available figures).
It is clear that the more time passes, more people are using the system. And this shows that more people are becoming conscious about the need to protect the environment.
The government and WasteServ should be encouraged by such a response, and yet the battle is far from being over.
The services offered with regard to the collection of waste must continue to be fine-tuned and upgraded, because any deficiency will cause a setback. If, for example, the recycled waste is not collected from a particular area for some reason or other, then the residents of that zone would be getting the wrong message.
It is also a wrong message when people who take their separated waste to bring-in sites find out that the bins are full up and that the only option is to leave the waste on the pavement nearby. There have been occasions when a lot of rubbish accumulated next to bring-in sites, more so when people use bring-in sites to dispose of material that should not be deposited there.
WasteServ is doing an excellent job in trying to empty the bins as regularly as possible, and it must be said that over the past months there seems to be a better control of the situation. Yet, in some places one can still see that waste is left on pavements close to the bins, and this means that these bins need to be emptied more often.
Needless to say, people must also realise that they should not dispose of their waste improperly when they find full bins. With so many bring-in sites available, they do not need to travel that much to dispose of their waste.
Added to all this, people who are caught abusing the system and disposing of their waste improperly should be charged with the offence and fined if found guilty. Some people learn only the hard way.