The fragmentation of the national packaging waste recovery effort between two operators is causing the country to fall far short of its European quotas, GreenPak Coop Society chief executive Mario Schembri has told The Times Business.
Malta is simply not doing enough to recover packaging waste. We should all be embarrassed about it
“GreenPak is the only entity that has the knowledge to operate a cost-effective waste recovery scheme backed by a credible organisation – PRO Europe, the owner of the Green Dot world renowned trade mark – which supports it to avoid making expensive mistakes,” Mr Schembri said.
“Our objective is to recover material for recycling at the least possible cost. We have said this in 2004 and, here we are in 2012 still saying the same thing.”
Countries like Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Austria, France and Portugal have all employed a single scheme to recover packaging waste and today are among the best performers in reaching and surpassing overall recycling quotas.
Mr Schembri insisted GreenPak is better suited to the task because “our scheme is wholly owned and financed by our own members, the companies which have a legal obligation to have their packaging waste recovered for recycling. GreenPak is not a business venture seeking to make profits. It is a cooperation between a wide range of businesses coming together to fulfil a social and environmental need”.
Malta’s packaging waste is also recovered by another operator, Green MT, a subsidiary of the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprise – GRTU.
Mr Schembri pointed out that GreenPak, which currently operates a 12-member team from its offices in Fgura, operates a nationwide scheme and that the co-operative could do much more if it were not hindered from expanding further.
It currently has contracts with 32 local councils, and figures reveal that these localities were recovering increasingly more waste.
“Malta is simply not doing enough to recover packaging waste and as a country, we are way behind. We should all be embarrassed about it,” Mr Schembri said. “What is worrying is that the public believes that Malta is doing enough for the environment but national statistics indicate otherwise. Many businesses are aware of their obligations and want to do more. But we cannot seem to go beyond this group of convinced businesses and households to improve national performance.”
Mr Schembri believes that Malta’s poor performance in waste recovery stems from misguided policies, particularly authorities getting involved in its implementation. The government’s only obligation, he emphasises, is to ensure fair legislation is in place and that it is enforced equally – any measure beyond that is interference that stifles innovation and hinders competitiveness, he said.
Mr Schembri believes that in a small country like Malta, fragmentation at the ‘scheme’ level is hindering higher recycling performance, particularly as division prevents the running of wide-reaching education programmes.
The most recent complete set of packaging recycling data per country and per material published by the European Commission’s Directorate General for the Environment in 2009 shows Malta at the bottom of the table for overall recycling quotas with just over 10 per cent of waste recovered. These figures represent national statistics supplied to the European authorities by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.
The other countries lagging behind and registering below 55 per cent include Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, and Poland. Europe’s worst performers still reach averages above 35 per cent with Hungary collecting past the 50 per cent mark. According to Mr Schembri, Poland, in penultimate position on the table, is the country operating the most waste recovery schemes.
Eurostat figures published in March show landfilled waste still accounting for almost 40 per cent of municipal waste treated in the 27 member states in 2010.
According to these statistics – Malta’s are provided by the National Statistics Office – the islands generated 591 kilos of municipal waste per person in 2010. Malta dispatched 86 per cent of its municipal waste to landfills (the EU average is 38 per cent), seven per cent is recycled (EU average, 25 per cent), and six per cent is earmarked for compost (EU average, 15 per cent).
Europe’s best performers operate a single nationwide recovery scheme, with some countries like Denmark recovering plastic for incineration to substitute fuel. Even then, they are still reaching the mandated European recycle quotas, Mr Schembri pointed out.
“In a nutshell, not only does Malta have economies of scale working against it,” Mr Schembri added to reinforce his point, “but we make the situation even worse by bizarrely introducing further fragmentation at a level where it should not exist.”