Recycling increases, but still way short of EU target

re bel

Feb 15th 2010, 09:09

the public still needs to be educated on the importance of recycling and the positive impact it has on the environment.

apart from this other issues need to be dealt with – for example

1. the weekly circulation of 'junk mail' in every letterbox - even the vacant residences!
when i informed the postman that a number of apartments in our block were vacant, he said that it is his job to leave a copy to every house

2. the supply of free plastic bags with purchases of relatively small items.
when i refuse the plastic bag, the cashier stresses that it is being given to me for FREE!

N.Lawrence

Feb 14th 2010, 19:18

Recycling increases, but still way short of EU target----

Not surprising. Just passing the green skips one will notice piles of "rubbish" which could easily be sorted. The problem is that most people just couldn't be bothered/too lazy to do a small bit of sorting.

Albert Bezzina

Feb 14th 2010, 18:52

Reduce, recycle, reuse. It is OK to show that we are recycling more material. Is this a result of increased awareness of the need to separate waste at source? Is it because more and more people are taking on this responsibility? The more important question is; Are we using up more and more throw away material and packageing? An attempt by the competent authorities is to monitor the throw away packaging and disposables which are consumed as the 'input' waste. There may be less people doing separation of waste at source but those who do are finding more waste to throw away. It is up to the public, with the help of continuous awareness campaigns, to choose goods with the least packaging and least disposables.

Callus J

Feb 14th 2010, 17:02

Home recycling is not free as it should be.
Plastic bags have to be bought.
Like in Belgium, bag collectors should leave an empty plastic bag on the doorstep for every bag collected.

C. Weitze

Feb 14th 2010, 14:22

I must admit that I can understand Paul Barret's point of view, as in other countries the bags for recycling waste are given out free of charge.

I have been separating waste for a long time and realized the following:

1) Every Thursday I have between 4 and 6 medium-size bags of recycling waste (plastic/paper/cans).
2) "Normal houshold waste" for a family of 4 has been deminished to one large bag a week BECAUSE
3) Biodegradable waste (fruit, vegetable,eggshells, teabags, coffee powder and garden cuttings) is being shredded and composted in a corner of our courtyard and produces fantastic soil free of charge.

My suggestion to improve our waste management:
1) COLLECTION OF BIODEGRADABLE WASTE should be introduced, since not everybody has a garden or courtyard to compost the waste.
2) PLASTIC AND CANS should be collected in one bag,
3) PAPER in a seperate bag...
The above will lead to easier, faster and cheaper separation at the recycling plant since basically all that is left to do is separating the cans from the plastic by using a magnet.
The biodegradable waste could be composted and eventually sold again as garden soil/menure.

j buttigieg

Feb 14th 2010, 13:29

Shopping bags were a part in recycling, you carry your shopping and then re use it for garbage .Now i use more plastic on garbage bags .

Brian Ferrante

Feb 14th 2010, 12:10

The first thing that should be done is to check that the Tuesday morning bags are pikced up. On Tuesday of last week, the bag I left outside my door in the was not picked up in the morning and it was taken by the regular Garbage collection together with the other (unrecycled) waste. This was the first time that I had used the "irricikla tlieta" service as I used to make use of bring in sites before. Another thing that could be done is to place bring-in sites along main roads so that people on their way to or from work could use them.

C Cassar

Feb 14th 2010, 12:06

Why do people expect everything to be collected? Why don't they invest a few minutes of their time by taking their seperated waste to the numerous special sites? The environment will only improve once people buy into it by making a serious effort. It's about time that large fines were brought in for those that don't seperate their waste. Hopefully if Malta gets fined by the EU in 2013, these fines will be passed on to the residents who are abusing and ignoring a great infrastructure that's been put in place.

Buying a few bags does not cost a great deal of money and it's a tiny contribution to make to have a huge impact on improving the environment.

a attard

Feb 14th 2010, 11:58

Are government offices, hospitals, hotels, factories and so on doing their part?

a attard

Feb 14th 2010, 11:49

maybe a seperate collection for glass should be added on a different day, and how about local councils hand out free recycling bags as an incentive to encourage those who might find buying the bags as a put off.? (this could be payed out from the new tax on plastic bags paid in stores)

Paul Barrett

Feb 14th 2010, 11:30

I must admit that I used to separate more when I had the plastic carrier bags to re-use from shopping to put different items in ready to take out for disposal. Now that I have to buy expensive plastic specific bags for my rubbish I tend to be more economical with them and put it all in one bag.