Le Meridien Hotel & Spa, St Julian’s is now taking part in GreenPak’s Hotel Waste Recovery Scheme. GreenPak has been in operation since 2004 and is assisting hotels in their implementation of waste separation.

As from 1 April, hotels in Malta are now being charged a landfill rate of €20 per tonne. Hotels are starting to take the necessary measures to recycle in order to contain these increased fees. Systems are either being introduced or further upgraded so that waste separation by hotel staff is maximised, thus recovering large amounts of rubbish that would otherwise end up in landfills.

The GreenPak Scheme has made it easier for hotels such as Le Meridien St Julian’s to recycle. GreenPak collects hotels’ packaged waste and sends it to a Mepa approved facility to be sorted and prepared for recycling.

Le Meridien St Julian’s has been highly motivated in embracing the importance of environmental sustainability in its business practises. The project is fully supported by manager Angela Saliba and driven by Security and Health & Safety Manager Joseph Zammit, who was recently chosen as the hotel’s Sustainability Champion. The hotel has implemented the use of colour-coded and labelled bins for ease of separation.

The majority of the staff has taken part in training sessions to help them understand the economic and environmental benefits of the scheme.

Le Meridien St Julian’s has made a commendable effort and, in the first few weeks of the scheme, has already seen an encouraging increase in tonnage of recyclable waste recovered.

About 37 per cent of a hotel’s weekly disposal consists of packaging waste that can be recycled. Recycling does not take much time and it is easy for employees to dispose of the waste in one of four colour-coded bins, instead of one.

GreenPak operates the only authorised packaging waste recovery scheme in Malta. Its operations are registered by Green Dot Malta Ltd under PRO Europe – an umbrella organisation for over 30 packaging recovery and recycling schemes across Europe. GreenPak operates a growing number of successful recovery projects in the hospitality sector.

The scheme is endorsed by the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise, approved by Mepa.

“The growing success of our tried and tested scheme has made GreenPak a pioneer of packaging waste recycling in Malta. We are committed to alleviating landfill charges for hotels and encouraging a greener and healthier environment,” said Green Dot Malta Ltd CEO Mario Schembri.