Mandatory waste dispenser systems for all restaurants in Valletta, banning the use of single-use black bags, and an app that shows left-over meals in shops, restaurants and pizzerias for people to purchase at a reduced price, was judged as the winning idea following last weekend’s 24-hour, non-stop Climathon hosted by Paragon Europe together with Climate-KIC at the Excelsior Hotel in Floriana.
Developed and submitted by V-Shred Team made up of five students, the winning idea will now be developed further to be made eligible to the Climate-KIC start-up process and put into motion in various phases.
The project that placed second was WaterPlas+ by ClimAct Team, which sought to encourage the reuse of water bottles through the application of a water-dispensing system thus leading to a drastic reduction in plastic bottles and plastic packaging. The project which came third proposed the distribution of barcoded recycling bags to help monitor and improve disposal patterns with the aim of taxing those who dispose the most.
Organised by Climate-KIC, this global climate change hackathon was held across 109 cities in 56 countries and saw the submission of over 5,500 ideas towards a cleaner environment and to mitigate climate change.
Valletta mayor Alexiei Dingli introduced the event by saying: “Valletta is a very complex city because it has a number of different realities, namely the residential reality, the commercial reality, the touristic reality, services offered to all those living or visiting the city and the entertainment reality. All these stakeholders put together generate a lot of waste. The increasing generated waste is one of Valletta’s main problems today and this is the challenge we are hoping the winning team could help us solve through the application of innovative and creative solutions. Such a solution rests on three pillars – reducing waste, helping people, especially residents, manage and separate waste more easily and educating the public to recycle more.”
In his keynote address, Bertrand Van Ee, former global CEO of Climate-KIC, explained how Malta’s track record when it came to recycling was very low.
Valletta is a very complex city because it has a number of different realities
“In fact, Malta is fifth from bottom among all EU countries. The EU countries that recycle most are Austria (70 per cent), Germany (62 per cent), Belgium (62 per cent) and the Netherlands (61 per cent). Malta stands at 12 per cent, followed by Latvia (10 per cent), Lithuania (seven per cent) and Romania (one per cent). Only Bulgaria does not recycle. The EU average is of 40 per cent recycling, 22 per cent incineration and 38 per cent dumping.”
Referring to his native city Amsterdam, Mr Van Ee noted how with an environmentally conscious population that is world-famous for using bicycles, Amsterdam ranked among the top three cities in both recycled waste and air pollution, key factors for its top position.
“Through the municipal waste and energy company (AEB), 99 per cent of municipal waste is recycled and reused in new raw materials as well as turned into sustainable electricity and city heating.”
Paragon Europe chairman Edwin Ward expressed his satisfaction at the outcomes of this year’s second Climathon event in Malta.
“During this 24-hour event, we had the opportunity to truly appreciate the uniqueness of Valletta as well as the unique challenges that its administrators have to face on a daily basis. Tackling the varied and equally important aspects of how to reduce municipal waste in innovative ways is no easy task because it not only depends on the city’s residents or the people who work or seek entertainment but it requires a collective effort by everyone to bring a change in culture. We need to be more open to new methods of how we can implement better waste separation, how to educate children and families and how we can utilize technology that can help us improve the existing situation,” he said.
Joe Attard, CEO of GreenMT, gave an overview of waste seperation and waste management patterns in Valletta. He noted how Valletta’s residents contribute 4.3 tons of mixed waste every day and 1,570 tonnes annually and that as at 2016, the total amount of residential and commercial mixed waste was of 4,056 tonnes. The cost of recyclable collection stands at €1,534 per month and the volumes of seperated waste collection this year stands at 125 tons compared to 64 tonnes in 2015 and 94 tonnes in 2016.
Mr Attard also suggested a number of initiatives that should be taken up as a way forward for Valletta, namely waste reduction incentives, fiscal payment for mixed waste generation, introduction of organic food waste collection, different coloured bags for catering establishments, waste managers under the Conduminuim Act, the introduction of electronic access bring-in sites, night waste collections and night street sweeping, hybrid/electric/gas vehicles for collections and a dedicated timed waste collection at a fee.
Nadia Theuma is managing director, Paragon Europe.