Waste collectors in Siġġiewi have been spotted emptying paper, plastic and metal recycling into the same disposal truck. 

Video footage shot on Tuesday shows the GreenMT employees emptying white and black bins, which national standards state should be for paper and metal respectively, into the truck. Witnesses said blue bins were also emptied into the truck.

The footage echoes video published by the Times of Malta last year. 

The practice would appear to be forbidden by waste recycling regulations, which state that companies collecting and transporting waste "shall not mix that waste with other waste or other material with different properties." 

But according to GreenMT CEO Joe Attard, the practice does not break any laws because the Siġġiewi bins have stickers reading "mixed recyclables" on them.

“We are not mixing waste with different properties. All the bins contain mixed recyclables, and that is what workers are combining.”  

Mr Attard added that the company operated this system in “a number” of the company’s contracted localities “and always with local councils’ agreement.”

The bins' colour-coding is negated by the 'mixed recyclables' sign, Green MT said.

Local councils are legally obliged to provide residents with bring-in sites where they can dispose of paper, metal, plastic and glass in separate colour-coded bins. Rules also state that all containers must "clearly indicate the colour coding applicable to the particular waste stream."

To fulfil their waste separation obligations, councils pen agreements with either GreenMT or rival company GreenPak for the companies to empty the colour-coded bins and collect recycled waste from households.

This waste is then taken to the material recovery facility at the Sant’Antnin Waste Treatment Plant, where it is sorted, packed into large bales and then sold to the highest bidder by Wasteserv, to be exported for further treatment mainly in European and Asian countries.

Wasteserv CEO Tonio Montebello told Times of Malta that they would prefer it if companies delivered already-sorted recyclable waste, but that his firm has no power to force them to do so.

“We prefer source-segregated material,” Mr Montebello said, “and when our inspectors note that material has not been segregated, we pay contractors at a lower rate.”

No money to waste

But Mr Attard argued that at current prices, it made no economic sense for GreenMT to collect different streams of recycling waste separately.

The company, which operates in 17 localities in Malta and 10 in Gozo, was established by the Chamber of SMEs – GRTU and is answerable to the business lobby.

“The economies of scale just don’t add up,” Mr Attard said. “Even from a carbon footprint point of view, why should we be sending out multiple trucks when there might be enough rubbish to fill just one?”

He insisted that Wasteserv would have to significantly increase the price it paid for already-separated waste for it to make it worth their while.

The company’s direct competitor, GreenPak, disagrees. When contacted, a company spokeswoman said that its refuse trucks carried out separate trips for every type of material recycled. “We always separate waste at source from the bring-in sites,” a company spokeswoman said.

Not doing so, the company spokeswoman argued, “is illegal.”

National standards established back in 2005 state that recycling containers with more than one type of waste in them should be clearly labelled and "display the colour-coding of all the waste streams to be collected."

A bin containing both metal and plastic, for example, must have "both the black and blue colour" displayed. 

A wasted opportunity?

Disposing of paper, plastic or metal in the same bin without having to sort it makes recycling more straightforward for the average citizen, though it is taxpayers who foot the bill for the additional man-hours Wasteserv requires to separate the mixed recyclable waste it receives.

But beyond pecuniary concerns, the mixed messages sent by having colour-coded bins which mean one thing at one site and another just down the road are hardly conducive to a recycling-sensitive society.

In Siġġiewi, white, blue and black bins are for "mixed recyclables". Just down the road in Żebbuġ, which is serviced by GreenPak, the same coloured bins only accept paper, plastic and metal respectively. 

Maltese recycling habits continue to lag behind those of many other EU member states, with mixed recyclables comprising just 5.5 per cent of all waste collected in 2015. That year, 93 per cent of all waste was dumped at Għallis landfill.

“We feel that mixing waste which households have painstakingly separated at source defeats the whole purpose and sends out the wrong message,” the GreenPak spokeswoman said.

Black bags, empty detergent containers and rotting vegetables all dumped at what is ostensibly a recycling site.

GreenMT’s Mr Attard argued that highlighting the problem risked missing the bigger picture.

“We sometimes find entire animal carcasses in recycling bins. Many people have learnt to separate waste, but a good deal have not.”

A visit to the Siġġiewi bring-in site highlighted in the video footage highlighted the problem. Black rubbish bags rested against recycling bins, with cardboard boxes full of rotting vegetables left to fester nearby.

Environment Minister Jose Herrera has said he wants to clamp down on irregular waste disposal and just two weeks ago, his ministry unveiled a smartphone app aimed at helping people dispose of their waste correctly.

But for decades, Maltese have been accustomed to all their rubbish disappearing off their doorstep every morning. It will take a lot more than a smartphone app and the promise of free recycling rubbish bags to bid good riddance to those bad habits.