Families in four localities will in the New Year start  use a separate garbage bag for organic waste in a pilot project coordinated by Wasteserv.

Environment Minister Leo Brincat said the exercise will determine the success or otherwise of encouraging families to stop mixing food waste with other non-organic waste.

Mr Brincat said talks were currently underway to identify the localities that will participate in the pilot project.

“We have to ensure the localities are big enough to give us meaningful results,” he said, adding the government favoured gradual change rather than a big bang approach.

He was speaking while visiting the Wasteserv head office at the Marsascala waste treatment plant.

The exercise will see families splitting household waste into three garbage bags: recyclable, mixed and organic.

The organic waste is essential to ensure the recycling and composting plant at Marsascala and the one under construction at Għallis work efficiently.

Wasteserv chief executive Tonio Montebello said the electricity generated by the Marsascala plant from the waste treatment process was “erratic” because the quality of waste entering the facility was poor.

“The amount of electricity generated depends on the quality of the gas generated from the composting facility and this very much depends on the quality of the waste received. Electricity generation improves over the Christmas period because more food is thrown away,” Mr Montebello said.

Mr Brincat said the crowning moment for Wasteserv this year was the conclusion of a collective agreement for workers, three quarters of whom are supplied by a private contractor.

The biggest problem was to ensure discrepancies between wages and conditions of workers in the same category were removed, he said, adding this redressed an injustice that was allowed to fester for years.