Eco-tax exemption should lead to more recycling

The government's acceptance that for industry to take up recycling in significantly large volumes, consumers had to be exempted from the payment of eco-tax,was positively noted by GreenPak Coop, the largest cooperative and waste recovery scheme in Malta.

Backed by over 300 members and 24 councils, GreenPak believes that companies should be given the ability that instead of paying eco-tax, they finance recycling. This is the ultimate objective behind the new Legal Notice 84 of 2010 which provides for eco-contribution exemptions, it said.

“Since the draft publication of the legal notice in November, GreenPak made several proposals to modify the draft regulations.

"Most of our recommendations have been accepted including a wider range of products to benefit from tax exemptions, including toiletries, detergents and shampoos."

Whilst the exemption was originally for six months, the regulations now also covered 2010 and subsequent years.

"This allows for better planning. We have positively noted that after more than fiv eyears of negotiations and consultations with the authorities since the introduction of eco-tax, our proposals were included,” said GreenPak CEO Mario Schembri.

A key factor in GreenPak's approach towards recycling increase in Malta has always been education about recycling. In these regulations, GreenPak has been given the necessary tools to get more people into recycling.

Any recycling bags given out by GreenPak are exempted from payment of tax on plastic bags. This is essential to underpin the distribution of free bags that the cooperative is distributing in 24 localities which are working with GreenPak.

These regulations should help Malta to get close to what other EU countries are achieving in terms of recycling. Malta recycles the least in the EU. Official figures just published show that the amount of separated waste for recycling in 2009 was about 6.7 per cent of the total household waste, up from 5.5 per cent in 2008. This is far below the EU percentage of at least 60 per cent that Malta needs to reach by 2013.

“It is evident that Malta has quite a lot to do in recycling terms. In tandem with the bold decision by government to increase landfill fees, GreenPak sees the new regulations as another step in the right direction to encourage higher recycling.

"The regulations now provide for tax exemptions on a wide range of products. Above all, the legal notice provides schemes with the necessary tools to set up effective educational campaigns to get more people to recycle,” said Ing. Schembri.