Growing up in Malta in the 1960s, I vividly remember the Keep Malta Tidy campaign, and as a boy I dreamt that Malta could easily rea­lise these goals and become clean and tidy. How wrong I was.

Here I am, half a century later, at the forefront of the local waste industry and very much engaged in the EU debate for a circular economy discussion – an ambitious target to ‘close the loop’ of product life cycles through greater recycling and reuse – yet in Malta we’re still grappling with the basics.

We’re still, almost apologetically, harping on the rudimentary idea that littering is “not good”, yet at the same time stopping short of naming and shaming all the culprits for their stupidity and disgusting behaviour.

Most assume that the waste management problem is easy to tackle. After all, they reason, it is a sector that employs poorly educated people, seemingly obli­vious to the endless number of highly qualified professionals the sector employs in fields as diverse as research, technology, legislation, economy, as well as natural and social sciences.

Politicians are mostly clueless on how to handle the waste management sector. Being at the receiving end of persistent public discontent, they resort to quick, largely ineffective solutions by throwing money at the problem without first establishing what is at the root of the festering quagmire.

One of the biggest issues afflicting waste management is the small-island mentality. This scholarly notion refers to the behaviour of isolated communities that perceive themselves as superior or exceptional to the rest of the world. Island mentalities are normally characterised by narrow-mindedness, ignorance or outright hostility towards anything foreign to their mindset.

In waste management, this is manifesting itself in the chaotic fragmentation of services. There are three ministries that all have a direct responsibility for Malta’s waste – the Justice, Environment and Transport ministries. And, apart from this, there are 67 local councils that add to the discordant tune of operations.

Fragmentation of services and lack of coordination is blatantly clear across every administrative and operational level.

The contraventions by Joe Public in recent weeks have exposed how far behind we remain to achieve the 1960s objective of keeping Malta clean

Similarly, the public is, largely, just as clueless. Many have no idea how much it costs to provide a daily door-to-door waste collection – Malta is the only EU member state that pampers its citizens by collecting rubbish from outside their doors every single day.

I find it mind-boggling how many still believe that the solution to illegal dumping at bring-in sites is to remove the recycling bins altogether. This would simply lead to more waste being dumped at the bottom of the valley or the seabed.

Not all is lost and there are solutions. Pooling all the resources through smaller and better-managed units is the first place to start.

Government’s role is to set policy and oversee it, ideally under just one ministry or governmental organisation. Provision of waste management services should be left to the competitive market. Millions of euros are spent every year – arguably much more than is needed – in a haphazard way that is failing to reap results.

The Extended Producer Responsibility is an effective tool to achieve sound and sustainable waste management. In EPR, companies are responsible for the waste resulting from their business activity, that is collecting and recycling the products sold after consumer use.

Malta officially adopted the EPR concept some 10 years ago and then reconfirmed it and extended this concept in the 2014 edition of the waste strategy. Today, EPR is what actually finances and runs the collection of recyclable waste from households and localities.

However, there has to be better and stronger enforcement. The contraventions by Joe Public in recent weeks have exposed how far behind we remain to achieve the 1960s objective of keeping Malta clean.

Who can forget the image of the man driving up to the bring-in site in his Porsche and illegally dumping his rubbish alongside the recycling bins? Or the more graphic images of people defecating or urinating in these public areas?

Waste collectors too are not without failings. For many months now, some waste operators have been systematically mixing recyclable waste, which has been diligently and patiently separated by the public.

This is another area where authorities are failing to enforce the law.

The matter is one of urgency as waste gene­ration continues to grow at a rapid pace. As basic waste management issues remain unaddressed, problems keep piling up. Coupled with Malta’s low recycling rates, lack of enforcement and the nonexistence of programmes to reduce waste generation, the only landfill on the island is quickly running out of space.

But despite the fragmentation within the sector, tepid action by the authorities and a misinformed public, I plan to keep chasing my dream for a tidier Malta.

Mario Schembri is the CEO of GreenPak.

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