The nationally renowned foodstore Maypole is aiming to reduce the amount of plastic used by the company by 1.5 million in the coming year, company directors Mario Debono and Sebastian Debono said in a press conference on Wednesday.

While expressing his gratitude towards the growth of the company, Mario Debono said, “we never wanted our success to interfere with the environment so we have always done our best to keep our operations environmentally friendly.”

Maypole has already implemented numerous projects in its day-to-day operations including recycling measures within the company’s factories and outlets, an investment in solar panels at the factory, as well as a system that collects waste from its bakeries and converts it into energy to be used to generate heat or power air conditioning systems.  With these measures, the company has already reduced 200 tons of carbon per year from its operations.

“Now we are working on reducing our plastic usage and remove up to 1.5 million plastic bags over just one year,” he added.

Sebastian Debono explained that with this measure, almost all plastic bags will be removed from the company which was established back in 1900 by two bakers.

This measure will be taking the company back to its roots when bread, Maltese bread specifically, was given out in paper bags. Sebastian said that this will not only benefit the environment but also the product since plastic bags do not keep the bread as fresh as a paper bag due to lack of ventilation.

From his end, Environment and Climate Change Minister Aaron Farrugia showed great support and appreciation for the strides that Maypole is taking in this regard, saying that this will contribute greatly to the government’s ambitious plan to reduce Malta’s waste.

“It is important for commercial entities to take ownership of the government’s plan,” Farrugia said while pointing out that Malta still has a long time to go with regards to waste.

While delineating the number of projects that the ministry is working on to reuse waste, such as the €500,000 investment in the Magħtab waste to energy facility, he said that it is now time to work on not just reusing but also reducing waste.

He added that, as per the previous budget, the government will be banning all importation of single use plastic in 2021, while by 2022 plastic bags will no longer be allowed to be sold.