About 100 companies will be taken to court for failing to recycle their waste packaging according to an EU directive, Malta Environment and Planning Authority waste unit manager Kevin Mercieca said this morning.
These companies ignored warnings to register themselves with Mepa and ensure that the packaging waste they generated was collected for recycling, he said.
The EU packaging waste directive, that was adopted into Maltese law in 2006, states that all companies that place packaging waste onto the local market have to take measures to collect it. They can either do it themselves of form part of schemes - GreenPak or GreenMT - that specialise in collecting such waste.
When the law came into force, in 2006, just over 1,700 companies registered with Mepa. The number increased to about 2,700 in 2010 following an awareness campaign.
The number of people who took up one of the two schemes increased from under 500 in 2006, to about 2,300 last year.
The law obliges packaging waste-generating companies to register themselves with the authority and provide documented proof that they were tacking the waste. Registration had to be renewed annually.
Those who failed to apply of adhere to conditions were giving a warning, followed by a fine that depended on the amount of waste they generated. Fines ranged from €100 to €44,000. Companies who ignored the warning and the fines were then taken up to court.
He said that Mepa had issued warnings to some 600 companies and just over 100 would soon be taken up to court. Another 400 cases were being looked into.
Saviour Formosa, who is heading an EU-funded project, gave an overview of the €4.6 million project that involves the setting up of environmental monitoring infrastructures. The project started in 2009 and will go on until next year.
It will involve creating a map of Malta that will include data on several environmental factors including air quality, noise levels, water and soil analysis and radiation tests.
The project also involves the scanning of Malta, every two or three years, and the creation of a three dimensional map. This will allow the authority to get a clearer understanding of a locality, compare the amount of development that went on along the years, and so forth.
All information collected through this project will be placed online and will be available to the public for free through a shared environment information system.