The door-to-door garbage collection service will definitely continue, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Planning Aaron Farrguia told The Malta Independent on Monday.

This was in reply to The Malta Independent asking Farrugia about the proposed gradual move towards a point-based waste collection system by the Local Councils' Association (LCA), that would see a network of public waste containers above and/or below ground grouped according to the national waste separation strategy.

Farrugia said that though he is "not content" with the current system of waste collection across the island, the government has developed a "very ambitious" long-term waste management plan for 2030, already approved by cabinet that does not include this plan to end curbside garbage pickup.

He told this newsroom that the government's plan, which will soon commence, is to move away from local council waste management to regional council waste management, a proposal with which the LCA had agreed.

Farrugia noted that Malta has reached recycling records "for the first time in 22 years."

The LCA's proposal was intended to tackle the current garbage collection system, that Association President Mario Fava had said renders footpaths "inaccessible, dangerous, unpleasant, and unhygienic." The current system, he said, is hindering the councils' efforts to promote walking as a sustainable mode of mobility.