Tuesday, 28th April 2009 - 12:09CET

Consumers urged to collect plastic bottle caps

GreenPak is calling on consumers to collect plastic bottle caps during the coming three weeks to deposit them in special bins at the GreenPak Earth Garden Festival being held on May 23r-24 at Ta’ Qali.

“Whether it’s a soft drink, table water, or a detergent liquid bottle cap, we would like it to be collected and brought to the festival to be properly recycled,” said GreenPak’s Communications Manager Denise Vassallo. “We want to ensure that the 2009 GreenPak Earth Garden will be the greenest edition ever.”

To encourage public participation in this initiative, GreenPak representatives will be giving gifts during this two-day event. Participants at the festival may send an sms naming the GreenPak mascot to participate in a draw for a Fuji A610 digital camera and a Canon Pixma1300 photoprinter. More information will be available on site.

GreenPak, is the leading waste recovery scheme in Malta and is the main sponsor for this year's event.

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Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Saturday, November 21, 2009. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.

Comments

Anthony Magri (on 29/4/09)

According to what has been written plastic bottles release a toxic substance that disolve in water; hence water, orange, seven up, kinnie coca, etc all liquid substances are not 100 % free of toxic materials. This has been proved in E.U. countries. Naturally, seeping a bottle will probably not harm a drinker, but continuous drinking might have some consequences.Don't we have analysts in Malta to confirm or other wise these findings abroad.

Ramon Casha (on 29/4/09)

@Andrew Calleja: The same trucks that delivered the soft drinks usually also took away the empties. The process of washing the bottles is much more energy-efficient when done on an industrial scale than the same process repeated thousands of times in thousands of kitchens. You do know that you're supposed to wash plastic food containers before recycling them don't you?

James A. Tyrrell (on 28/4/09)

@Andrew Calleja. No sir you are wrong. I was listening to a scientific pod cast in work today, which stated that the energy involved in producing and disposing of for instance a plastic water bottle could be seen in the following way. Imagine that 25% of your bottle of water was oil! This is representative of the energy involved.

Andrew Calleja (on 28/4/09)

I'm no expert but could it be that washing and sterilising glass bottles causes more environmental damage than using plastic bottles? What about transport for collection ? Just cannot imagine how much water, electricity and transportation is required to re-use a bottle...

Edward Grech (on 28/4/09)

I agree perfectly with D. Vella below. The glass-bottle recycling scheme worked excellently. No plastic was wasted, and the drinks tasted better.

Above all, the system worked so well, that most people would not throw the bottle in the bin, but place it next to it, to save the person who will eventually collect the bottle (for its refund) from having to dive through rubbish. So in a interesting way the system also functioned as a sort of “organic” charity network.

DVella (on 28/4/09)

This plastic bottle business is a farce . . . in Malta we previously had an excellent record of up to 60 cycles of re-use for glass bottles . . . the highest in Europe . . . we could have taught these European idiots a thing or two but NO . . . we get hit upon by the eurocrat 'fair competition' gestapo and instead of sticking our ground and trying to push for re-introduction of glass bottles and their re-use on a European scale based on the excellent record we had, we bend over backwards to please the back-office gnomes in Brussels and introduce millions of plastic bottles into our waste stream overnight!!!!

Steven Brockwell (on 28/4/09)

what a joke collect the whole bottle forget the top?? that's what i call recycle go the whole mile and prove your worthy of your name ?

LGalea (on 28/4/09)

Bottle caps?
Why not slap a €2 tax on plastic bottles?

Consumers urged to collect plastic bottle caps

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